Food Bank Growers News

What to do with Sun Chokes

Sat, 31 Jan 2026 21:43:43 GMT

Sweet Pickle Them!

Sun Chokes are a crop that our native populations relied upon for winter food. Their warty roots overwinter in the ground long after their sunflower-type bloom fades. By January when you're ready to start digging in again on that first sort-of-warm day, buried Sunchoke roots provide a mountain of fresh food, but what do you do with them? The two bucket loads shown on the left came from the Salish School Farm. You get a lot from a few plants.

They can be roasted, added to soups, their water chestnut-like texture grated into a salad, or sliced and SWEET PICKLED. The last option passes the bar food test, i.e. would a group of old guys drinking beer munch them down - and they do!

Sun Chokes are a pain to clean up which is why many folks don't bother with them, but if you wash off the majority of the soil, then slice on a mandoline 1/8 thick, the thin slices make it a breeze to wash off the remaining dirt. After that fill a 2 quart jar and add the below (hot) fast pickle juice to cover. Let them cool and enjoy.

P.S. This sweet pickle recipe also is great on cucumbers and red onion slices.

Tip of the Month

Wed, 31 Dec 2025 03:05:16 GMT

Fast fill pots

Fill the back of your truck bed or trailer with all the pots you want to fill BEFORE you have the local nursery dump a yard of soil into the bed. You'll save yourself a lot of shoveling by letting a bobcat do the heavy lifting (and filling).

LEFT: Noreen evens out the load and later shovels the soil that went between the pots into a fresh container.

Christmas Harvest -- Joy for our Winter Growing World

Wed, 31 Dec 2025 02:49:35 GMT

YES! You can grow food in winter.

ABOVE LEFT L-R: Arlene, JJ, Louise, Mary Beth, Bill, Seth and Mado hold just sample of what we donated on Christmas Eve!

**********************************************************

Our December 24th Harvest was amazing! We took 56 pounds of food to the Christmas Eve Food Bank, and another 10 pounds to the Recovery Cafe. Garden volunteers also brought in pounds of herbs, kale and flowers; the garden harvested carrots (it took two people over two hours just to scrub them!), leeks, pac choi, and stir fry mix. A truly happy gang this harvest day!

BELOW

Mado , Susan and Seth are ready to start seedlings for a number of FBG gardens in January in our "Greenhouse". Another volunteer, Dave , built these great benches lining the greenhouse on which we can grow out some veggies in crates. Shown behind them are some baby lettuce & mature pac choi that were just harvested this week.

Scott , Derek and Rach stayed a bit warmer inside the hoop house scrubbing the hundreds of carrots pulled this day.

Carrots still in the ground and just pulled: Our most consistent with shape and flavor was the Nantes variety of Bolero. Our warmish weather has them keeping their lovely greens well into this winter!

Barb and Robert walked their home harvest to the Garden for our final harvest of the year. Lovely herbs, kale and parsley were so appreciated.

December 2025 Newsletter

Tue, 02 Dec 2025 02:16:55 GMT

Eating Local still works in December

In this month’s newsletter...

Harvest Year-to-Date OVER 40,000 pounds!!!
NEW Garden Manager publication
Events and Announcements
Food for Thought - Wine Pairing
KPTZ In the Garden Podcast
December In the Garden with Dianna

YEAR-TO-DATE STATS

25,134 pounds of produce
15,339 pounds of gleaned fruit
1,472 seedlings given away
7,750 volunteer hours

It’s more or less a wrap on 2025 production except for greenhouse greens and cold-worthy crops. It’s amazing what a few gardens and backyard orchards can produce with lots of volunteer love.

NEW Garden Manager publication

ANNOUNCING: The FGB Garden Committee is launching a new monthly publication for Garden Managers. Sproutin’ Off is designed to keep managers up to date on the committee’s ongoing work—both in response to issues raised in the Garden Manager survey and to new needs identified along the way. …

FOOD FOR THOUGHT:

Join Ben for a scintillating journey through Port Townsend Vineyards selections of wines, and learn what foods might optimally pair with which

varieties.

Tasting participation is capped at the first 40 RSVPs sent to barbaratusting97@gmail.c om

An additional 20 seats are available to enjoy the talk — Free presentation.

Tuesday Dec. 9th - 6:30-7:30 p.m.

Quimper Grange - 1219 Corona Ave, Port Townsend

Now on KPTZ

In the Garden, with Julia Cordz, Barbara Faurot, Mary Beth Haralovich, and Dianna Wiklund.

GO HERE for past shows.

The next show airs Thursday, from 6-6:30pm.

IN THE GARDEN - December 2025

This month looks to be holding to the averages. Lows around 38°, highs around 44° F. Rainfall should be around 2.5 inches. Port Townsend usually gets about 18 days of measurable rainfall. So we need to be watering only in greenhouses and under well sealed cold frames. Other than that, what is challenging in the garden this month is the lack of light. Port Townsend gets about 8 and a half hours of daylight, which is the bare minimum to grow a few winter veggies if you have a very sunny location.

Entering the darkest month of the year is a great time to look forward to getting seeds started. Think about what kind of vegetables you like to eat and see what seeds are available in different garden catalogs.

Seed Catalogues

I try to buy from local seed suppliers so that the seeds I grow have been proven to grow in my area. Some seeds from other parts of the country grow fine here but others do not. Getting your seed from a local source will help you have a more successful garden and support local farmers.

When you are looking through a seed catalog, you might have questions about what some of the designations mean - heirloom, organic, F1, OP. All mean something about how the seed was produced.

Heritage seeds are those that have been passed down from one person to the next through many generations. These are seeds that people have liked well enough to save seeds and keep them going. They are all “Open Pollinated” which means they can cross pollinate with seeds from the same plant family.
Organic seeds meet strict criteria for organic production meaning they have been raised to meet the current rules of various local and government agencies. Mainly it means that the seed has not been altered in any way. Then the plant was raised without chemical pesticides or fertilizer and in a controlled area so it does not cross pollinate with similar plants.
F1 means that the parent plant has been crossed with a different variant to produce a more vigorous seed in the next generation but only in the next generation. The seed from that will unlikely produce the same plant.
OP is open pollinated. These seeds come from plants that have been allowed to pollinate without a force or specific cross. All heritage seeds are OP as are most Organic seeds. F1 is not.

Seed catalogs are usually laid out by plant types. All the beets are together and all the peas are together so it is easy to compare beets to beets and peas to peas. When comparing different variants of a plant you might want to grow, you should look at several things.

When to start the plant and length of time it takes to grow. Some plants require a longer growing period than we here on the Quimper peninsula have. Some can grow fast enough that we can get multiple crops.
While reading the description of the different variants, consider how you want to use the plant. Will you be eating it fresh or canning or freezing it? How well does it hold up to preservation or does it all need to be used fresh.
Consider how much you can/want to grow and how much seed is in a package. Is there enough or way too much? Should you consider sharing with someone else? If properly stored, many seeds can last several years but others are only really viable in the first year. Ordering larger packets and sharing can save money as they are often cheaper by the seed/pound in larger packages. I have found it challenging to compare seed prices because many companies list their seeds in different ways—either by the gram, ounce, seed count or sometimes not at all. This can make comparisons frustrating but worth doing.
You might also consider choosing two or more variants of the same type of plant. Different variants can grow under different conditions and with weather variations we never really know what the growing season will be like until we are in it. I like to grow multiple varieties of green beans for this reason. Purple beans do well in cool summers, greens do well most of the time, yellow seem to produce best in hot conditions. So if I have planted all three, then I am likely to get a good harvest from at least one variety if not all of them. Other veggies are similar. Plus it is fun to experiment with all the many variants that are available.

Planting

Garlic can still be planted although your harvest might be a bit later next summer.
Radishes are another possibility this month but it will be hit and miss as to germination. Try under a cold frame or in a hoop house. Add cover if temperatures drop below freezing.
Some people have had luck starting peas in unheated greenhouses and getting an early harvest next spring. You can do the same with lettuce if we don’t get a hard freeze.

Harvest

The last of the fall crops can be brought in now. Mature salad greens and spinach can be harvested before we get a hard freeze.
Root veggies like carrots and beets have sweetened up and will add color and flavor to winter soups and salads.
Brassicas are slowing down but brussel sprouts are said to be sweeter after a frost so try some both before and after to see if you can tell the difference.
Some winter apples are waiting on our first frost to finish their ripening.

Garden Projects

Now is the time to finish putting our tools in order.

Clean and oil all hand tools.
Sand wood handles and consider oiling them or varnishing them for better protection.
Check and repair fences, look for rabbit-sized holes.
Think about whether you want to build any cold frames or hoop houses for next year. This is a good time to gather materials together and study how to assemble them.

In the cold dark of December, it is important to remember that the light and warmth will return. All our overwinter crops can stay safe under their layer of mulch and begin to grow again as the light returns. A new year, a new season brings hope of new beginnings and another chance to explore our world and see what we can grow. We can help others and ourselves by spending time working in the soil of our gardens. I wish everyone a joyous return of the light and a bright new beginning to the coming growing season .

Happy Gardening Everyone!

Dianna

Dianna's Garden Consulting

(360) 643-0090 - send a direct text

Give a man a fish you feed him for a day.

Teach a person to garden and you feed their whole community.

November 2025 Newsletter

Fri, 07 Nov 2025 17:58:04 GMT

Tucking in for winter...

In this month’s newsletter...

FBG Annual Planning Retreat
Harvest & Gleaning Pounds, Plant Starts, and Hours
Events and Announcements
Food for Thought - Preserving Herbs
Volunteer Thank You Dinner and Cider Sunday
KPTZ In the Garden Podcast
Apple SAUCING!
Hoop de DO!
November In the Garden with Dianna

FBG Annual Planning Retreat

November 8th (Saturday) from 9 am to 3 pm

at the WSU Extension Office, 121 Oak Bay Road.

Open to all who care about growing for food security in 2026.

Bring your ideas and a salad to share.

Questions? Email FoodBankGrowers@gmail.com

YEAR-TO-DATE STATS

21,672.27 Pounds of Grown Produce

14,114 Pounds of Gleaned Produce

1,472 Plant Starts Given Away

6892 Volunteer Hours

Wow! All of the above from a little over 2 acres of garden space and lots of backyard orchards that would have just fed deer. And… we’re not done, the winter lettuce, spinach, and other brassicas is just getting started.

_______________

FOOD FOR THOUGHT:

Beating the Cold & Flu Season:

Boosting Immunity using Medicinal Herbs with Denise Joy, Mountain Spirit Herbs.

Free presentation

Tuesday Nov 11 - 6:30-7:30 p.m.

Quimper Grange - 1219 Corona Ave, Port Townsend

Celebrating her 40th year as sole proprietor of Mountain Spirit Herbals, Denise will be discussing a variety of herbal remedies for boosting our immune systems and to help with symptoms of colds and other seasonal ailments. She grows nearly all the herbs that she uses in her teas, tinctures, oils and balms. A limited supply of “Kick-Ass” will be available to purchase at the talk for $20 (cash).

Free presentation at

Quimper Grange, 1219 Corona Ave PT

Doors open at 6:15. All are welcome - the Grange has ADA access.

Food For Thought, a free series offered by the Quimper Grange #720, examines ‘’all things food & growing” in our area. For 100+ years, this Grange has supported the Jefferson County community through public programming, concerts, dance, rental space, and a 7,000 ft² all-volunteer garden which donates produce to help food insecurity around our county.

Our volunteers are the best. Thank you for growing, gathering, and giving back to our community

Growers Volunteer Night highlights

Gleaners Cider Sunday highlights

Now on KPTZ

In the Garden, with Julia Cordz, Barbara Faurot, Mary Beth Haralovich, and Dianna Wiklund.

LISTEN HERE for past shows.

The next show airs Thursday, from 6-6:30pm.

Apple SAUCING!!!

Each year the Gleaner Sauce Team squeezes our apple sauce for the schools. Read HERE about how they made 1,950 pounds of it.

Hoop de DO! How to install winter protection tunnels that can stand up to the winds.

Learn how to make your own tunnels here.

November in the Garden

By Master Gardener Dianna Wiklund

November looks to start off warm and wetter than normal. This is a La Nina year so we should be cooler and wetter for most of the fall/winter. Even though it is not starting off that way. Port Townsend averages between lows of 41.9°F and highs 48°F with about 2.9 inches of rainfall. We may see almost 2” in the first week, according to some predictions. What this means to our gardens is we need to have our soil covered. Whether you have planted a cover crop or are mulching you will need to have something in place so you don’t lose your topsoil. At this point even just spreading old sheets (cotton is best) or tarps (last resort) will help soil stay in place. If you are adding fresh leaves or straw you might want to put something over it to keep them from blowing away. Fencing works really well for this, just spread over the new mulch and maybe a board or rocks to hold it down.

Garden clean up.

November is a time to decide if you are going to let your garden sit over the winter with any plants still standing as food and habitat for winter birds or if you want to cover it up with mulch or, if our weather permits, cover crops.

There are good reasons for all the above three options as well as continuing to garden over the winter under hoop houses, cold frames and mulch surrounding your winter plants.

Leaving your crops and weeds until spring provides a place for birds to feed all winter long. It also provides insects and small rodents a place to hide and burrow in for the winter. The drawbacks are that any weeds or other seeds can spread in your garden early in the spring. Also, it is unknown which insects are going to over winter and whether they are beneficial or not.
Covering your beds with mulch is a good way to keep your soil in place during winter rains. It can also add nutrients depending on what you use for mulch. In the spring you can just make holes in it and put your transplants directly into it or direct sow in it.
There is still time to plant a few cover crops in early November. They won't get very high but should take off in the spring depending on what type of winter we get.

The other things to consider in putting your garden to bed are:

Irrigation:

Drain your water lines so they don’t freeze and break.
Remove soaker hoses for the same reason.
Bring in nozzles, connectors and timers.

Tools:

Clean up your tools and put them away in a dry place for spring. Get the dirt off and possibly oil them to help keep the rust away.
Gather in your cloches, pots and planting trays. Give them a good rinse or even a washing. Store them somewhere out of the way for early spring use.

Mulch:

Mulch can be many things depending on what you want to use it for. Mulch is an organic covering material mimicking fall leaves that protect young plants over the winter. It is the blanket that helps keep the ground warm and cozy then turns into the best possible seedling mix for the next generation to start in.

In the forest, seeds fall in late summer then the leaves come down and cover them. They are protected from heavy rainfall and winter’s cold. Then in spring, they have decomposed enough to allow the seedling to push through while providing what is needed for the seedlings to start growing. All winter they have gathered nutrients from passing critters. Gardeners try to mimic this with mulch in our gardens. Leaves or straw followed by compost provide what is needed all year long.

The above works best for annual plants. For perennials, try heavy mulches like wood chips and bark mimicking the fallen branches of winter that break down more slowly. The higher acid of the woody debris is better for acid loving plants like berry bushes.

Planting:

Most years we can still plant in early November but this year might be more limited due to heavy rainfall disturbing the seeds. A few things that can be planted now are;

Garlic - Can still go in just make sure it is covered by a couple of inches of mulch. In this case, you can use well-aged manure or old compost as well as leaves and straw.
Spinach and lettuce can be transplanted out. Direct seeding might not go very well.
If you want to try to plant cover crops now, try fava, winter wheat, rye or field peas.
Bare root trees and bushes can still go in and get a start before spring. Again, mulch them well.

Harvest

After our first frost, which should be mid month, Brussels sprouts and sunchokes will be at their peak.
Root vegetables can be harvested until the ground freezes.
Greens will be fading out as the weather gets colder unless you have them under cover in a cold frame or green house.
Winter squash should be cured and ready for storage.
Apples and pears continue to ripen depending on variety, some sweeten up after the first frost.

November is all about the harvest and being thankful for all we have been able to grow and share this year. In good years and bad, there is something to be thankful for. Even a small harvest can be celebrated and large harvests can be shared around to help others.

I want to thank everyone who has shared out their harvests this year. More than ever this is a great time to celebrate that we have enough to share. Even if you didn’t grow enough to share this year, you can plan for what can be grown next year and increase the general productivity for our whole community. Thank you everyone for growing for others. You are a blessing.

Happy Gardening Everyone!

Dianna

Dianna's Garden Consulting

(360) 643-0090 - send a direct text

Give a man a fish you feed him for a day.

Teach a person to garden and you feed their whole community.

Everyone is Welcome

We’re so grateful for our volunteers! Feel free to join us and explore opportunities to grow, glean, or help remotely. Just let us know what interests you, and we’d love to get you involved!

Hoop de DO!

Sun, 02 Nov 2025 01:07:12 GMT

Making low tunnel hoop frames to protect plants from the winter winds of Fairwinds

Rach and Milly bend EMT electrical conduit into the perfect shape using a bender made by Keith.

The Fairwinds FBG team installed two low tunnels to allow winter growing for the food bank! These two new tunnels provide protected space on two 70' rows in which to grow less cold-hardy plants which, in addition to one open-air winter crop bed containing frost-tolerant plants, will allow us to provide food to the food bank even during the colder late fall through early spring months.

The design was initially inspired by a pre-made low tunnel kit Gayle discovered in 2024, but Gayle, Milly and Keith researched and brainstormed a sturdier design using more common materials. Hoops are made from 10' EMT electrical metal conduit. They are bent by hand using a home made hoop bender which was inspired by an on-line design and embellished and built by Keith Lierman. The base of the hoop bender is an old corner cabinet piece from the Lierman residence, with decking and other re-use materials for the other pieces.

Thanks to Mother Nature, we learned quickly that the hoop ends need to fit securely down into the ground as far as possible, as the not-so-fair winds across the open field at Fairwinds love the large "sail" created by the hoop plastic cover and push hard against it! This means the carabiners need to be tightened at LEAST 6" up from the end of the hoop, so that the 6" end can be pressed/pounded into the ground to hold the hoop securely under high wind conditions.

Thanks to all the HOOP-la, we look forward to being able to provide more healthy fresh produce to the food bank all year long!

In case anyone wants to nerd out on the design...

Each tunnel required 18 hoops total and the bent conduit was slid over short rebar stakes pounded into the ground. The beds are 30" wide and the hoop ends were spaced around 35" - 36" to give growing plants some space. The distance between hoops is 5' except at the very ends where it gets a tad closer. Thanks to last year's rebar donation (among other things) from Mary Hunt when the Red Hen FBG garden closed down no rebar purchase was required - we had plenty on hand! Small carabiners were clamped to the bottom of each side of the hoop using pipe clamp. 1/4" thick round bungee material was purchased and cut into 16.5' lengths, tied off, and clipped into the carabiners on the "feet" of each hoop at ground level, holding the plastic cover down on each side of the metal hoop. The ends of each tunnel terminate in an angled hoop (~ 45 degrees from the ground) and a tie-down stake, to which the bundled up plastic end is tightly wound and attached with twine.

Contributed by Milly Lierman

Ladders Down / Drink up!

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 00:23:33 GMT

PT Gleaners gather to sqeeze out the last of the season.

On the heels of the FBG/PTGleaner Volunteer Dinner, the PT Gleaners held their Big Squeeze Party on Sunday and put over 1000+ pounds of apples through the chipper and then pressed. Our thanks to Bill for lending out his covered driveway again to keep things moving along even if it rained (it didn't). Seth and Kathy organized equipment and people. Jim and Tom brought their presses, Mary brought the chipper, and everyone contributed apples by picking them just days before.

The Big Squeeze is an interesting event in that new and old "cider makers" arrive, find something they want to do, and get to work. If they get tired, they move to another task or grab a bite off the snack table along with a glass of fresh-tapped cider. Many showed up this year and moved from task to task as room allowed at the chopping tables.

While we still have more apples to pick before calling a season, the current take for the year is over 11,000 pounds of fruit, picked one-by-one and given away.

Hand Hoe Down / Eat Up!

Mon, 20 Oct 2025 23:43:42 GMT

FBG Volunteers and PT Gleaners celebrate their accomplishments

What a great night to gather and swap stories of what grows, what goes, and what goes right! Fifty-four growers and gleaners filled the Quimper Grange with pounds of stories and also learned about the work in other gardens and what the PT Gleaners have been up to.

Our thanks to Barbara Tusting for being the anchor host at the Quimper Grange, Mado Most for pulling the on-site pieces together, Noreen Andrews for sending out and managing invites and then honoring our retiring gardeners, Mary Beth Haralovich for saving the tech day, Susan Capps for the Golden Parsley parting gift, and Mary Hunt for MC-ing the night.

Special thanks to Sallie Cymbalski and Judith Johnson for their years (and YEARS) of dedication to Community Gardens and the Food Bank Growers.

If you couldn't make the night and would like to see the slide deck of accomplishments, click here.

Apple Saucing 2025

Wed, 08 Oct 2025 02:48:24 GMT

1950 pounds + 65 buckets = a ton of work

ABOVE: Apples may come in all shapes and sizes, but they all get sauced in the end.

This year's marathon was 10 hours long at the Blue Heron Middle School kitchen. Lots of cross-trained hands made for a relaxing day of washing, chipping, cooking, saucing, cooling, and freezing... This year's batch was just the right amount to texture to taste. T he end result will be served at Port Townsend, Chimacum, and Quilcene Schools as toppings for pancakes, muffin ingredients, or just straight up fresh.

A huge thanks to all the volunteers who made it happen for the 5th time. Dorothy, Rach, Mary O, Seth, Tom, Keith, Milly, Hailian, Jim, Doug, Mary H, Alex, Glenn, Suzanne, Nicole, and all the pickers who provided 3000 pounds of apples.

October Newsletter 2025

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 23:50:19 GMT

Kuri Up! It's High Harvest Season

In this month’s newsletter...

Harvest & Gleaning Pounds, Plant Starts, and Hours
Events and Announcements
Volunteer Appreciation Dinner - Oct. 16, 5-7
Food for Thought
Farm Tour RECAP- Quimper Grange and Salish Coast
FairWinds Washstand
KPTZ In the Garden Podcast
Long Table Celebrations
October In the Garden with Dianna

YEAR-TO-DATE STATS

19373.27 Pounds of Grown Produce

6475 Pounds of Gleaned Produce

1336 Plant Starts Given Away

6508.75 Volunteer Hours

Thank you volunteers for harvesting, gleaning, and delivering the goods. Below is an example of the starts we leave at the Food Bank. Recently Barbara Tusting heard how Food Bank clients took seedlings grown at Dundee Hill and the Grange home, grew an over abundance of food and then brought the excess back to the Food Bank. What goes around, comes around…

SAVE THE DATE

VOLUNTEER APPRECIATION Dinner

October 16, (Thursday) 5-7 pm at the Quimper Grange

More information coming in a separate flyer this week.

EVENTS and more…

FOOD FOR THOUGHT:

Eco-Living and Growing at Peace Hill — A look at how affordable housing blended with vegetable farming and more can work together.

Presenters : Celine Santiago, property owner and Visionary Ben Thomas, City Councilor, Port Townsend Vineyards Vintner Kellen Lynch, Olympic Housing Trust

Refreshments from local growers will be followed by a question and answer session.

Tuesday, October 14, 2025,

6:15-7:30 p.m.

Free presentation at

Quimper Grange, 1219 Corona Ave PT

Doors open at 6:15. All are welcome - the Grange has ADA access.

FARM TOUR - Recap (PICTURED ABOVE_

Clockwise: Quimper Grange co-managers Barbara Tusting and Mary Beth Haralovich rock their new Grange Garden T-shirts. Farmer Neil Howe shows off the no bug/slug/crud lettuce he can grow using hydroponics inside the Salish Coast Greenhouse. Suzanne Egglesston helped guide visitors around the Grange Garden. Mary Hunt, Noreen Andrews, Patricia Nelson, Charlotte Wells, and Kathy Ryan welcome guests to Salish. Belinda Jimenez gave a Vermicompost demo to standing room only audience, unfortunately the PDF file is too big to load up here for sharing.

Our deep thanks to all the volunteers who worked the tables, rows, and behind the scenes to make these gardens available to the public. Ten new volunteers have since joined our merry group just in time for the high harvest season. Thank you!

FAIRWINDS gets a new washstand from scratch

Milly and Keith Lierman used all their skills as scavangers and craftsman to create this highly functional veggie washstand and “part-time bar” via donations from all Fairwinds volunteers. Go here to read the full story and accolades.

IN THE GARDEN PODCAST

Now on KPTZ Airdate September 4th: In the Garden, with Julia Cordz, Barbara Faurot, Mary Beth Haralovich, and Dianna Wiklund.
LISTEN HER E. The next show airs Thursday, from 6-6:30pm.

Long table events in the garden - one of the secret benefits of volunteering…
Read more here.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

October in the Garden

By Master Gardener Dianna Wiklund

October forecast looks to be for average temperatures and rainfall. Low temperatures of 46.9°F and highs around 55.2°F. There should be about 16.1 days and 2.28" of precipitation. This means it is time to clean up and put away irrigation systems for the winter. For some this means cleaning and coiling up soaker hoses and for others draining lines and getting ready for winter’s freezing temperatures. If you can, check all hoses and connections and see what needs to be replaced before spring.

Garlic:

Garlic is native to Central and South Asia as well as the Mediterranean. It has been used and cultivated for 1000’s of years. Historically it has been used both medicinally and in culinary applications. It is grown and used in cuisine all over the world.

This is the best time to plant garlic. I know that garlic is fairly cheap in stores but it can have a lot more flavor when home grown. It looks great braided into fall decorations that can be used all year. You can braid both soft neck and hard neck garlics: the hard neck just comes out spikier and makes great fall wreaths.

There are two main types of garlic. Soft neck and hard neck. Plus elephant garlic which is actually a leek.

Soft Neck Garlic

Keeps longer, 9 - 11 months under cool dry conditions.
It often has a milder flavor, not as hot and sharp.
Cloves form in several layers around a central soft stem.
It is easier to braid for storage and decoration.
Plant 3 - 4 inches deep and 4 inches apart.

Hard Neck Garlic

Has a shorter keeping time, usually around 6 - 9 months.
It has a more intense flavor.
Cloves form in a single circle around the flower stock. The flower stock is where we get garlic scapes which can be harvested shortly after they appear for a lovely addition to many meals.
Stores well with stem removed and placed in a mesh bag. It can be braided or tied in bundles but gives a very different look.
Plant 3 - 4 inches deep and 4 inches apart.

Elephant Garlic

Not a true garlic, more closely related to a leek.
Has a milder sweeter flavor with very large cloves.
Short keeping time 3 - 4 months.
Plant 6 inches deep and 6 inches apart.

Garlic comes in several colors ranging from white through pinks and purples to browns. I have not noticed that the colors affect the flavor much.

Garlic also comes in early, mid and late season varieties. I like to plant a little of each just to keep my fresh harvest going. I am very fond of fresh garlic straight from the garden. Of course I don’t use uncured garlic in pickling because it can turn an odd blue green — it’s not dangerous, they just look questionable. The color is caused by the reaction between the sulfur in the garlic with chemicals often found in water.

Planting:

Broad beans and snow peas, radishes and turnips, spinach, shallots and multiplier onions all can still be planted for harvest next spring.
This is a good time to plant cane fruit like raspberries.
This is also the time to plant fruit trees and flower bulbs.
Cover crops can still be planted now before it becomes too dark and cold to grow anything. It is very important to keep the soil covered either in crops or in mulch so it doesn’t wash away in the winter rains. Nitrogen is especially susceptible to washing away without the support of roots to hold it in place. Remember to include your cover crops in your crop rotation plan.

Harvesting:

Many of our fall plantings are now ready; lettuce and spinach, broccoli and cabbages, the last of the tomatoes and the first of the brussel sprouts all bring joy to the dinner table.
Summer squash is dying off and winter squash is getting ready to harden off. Check your winter squash for hardness (should resist a fingernail scratch) and bring in to cure in a warm place 5 - 7 days at 80 to 85 ° F. Then store 50 ° to 55 ° F but not below 50 ° or they will deteriorate quickly.
Tree fruit like apples and pears are also continuing to ripen. Remember to store apples and pear away from other produce as the ethylene gas they emit causes other fruit and veg to ripen and decompose more quickly. Store them in a cool dark location or if you have the space in a refrigerator. Apples and pears need to be stored below 45 ° F, for longest term storage between 30 and 35 ° F at 90% humidity.
Fall flowers and leaves can bring the joyful colors of autumn inside where we can enjoy them even in the rain.

My ongoing reminder for fall and winter is to mulch, mulch, mulch. It is important to keep our soil covered and some of our perennials will need the extra protection as cooler temperatures set in.

As we settle in to enjoy all the wonderful fruits and veggies that our gardens have brought us we should consider what has worked well this year and what has not. Starting a garden journal could be helpful in keeping track of our successes and our learning experiences. A place to write about what we want to do next and how we felt about our time in the garden over the year. Looking back can remind us of all we have learned and the joys of our mistakes.

Happy Gardening everyone,

Dianna

Dianna's Garden Consulting

(360) 643-0090 - send a direct text

Give a man a fish you feed him for a day.

Teach a person to garden and you feed their whole community.

Everyone is Welcome

We’re so grateful for our volunteers! Feel free to join us and explore opportunities to grow, glean, or help remotely. Just let us know what interests you, and we’d love to get you involved!

Volunteer Sign Up

Thank you FBG Community!

Click here to donate to the Give Butter/BIG DRIP fund.

Farm Tour 2025

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 00:28:59 GMT

Another BIG year starting with the pumpkins!

LEFT: Photographer, Bonnie Obremski demos the astonishment most visitors had when they saw the giant pumpkins at Salish Coast.

ABOVE Clockwise: Quimper Grange co-managers Barbara Tustin and Mary Beth Haralovich rock their new Grange Garden T-shirts. Farmer Neil Howe shows off the no bug/slug/crud lettuce he can grow using hydroponics inside the Salish Coast Greenhouse. Suzanne Egglesston helped guide visitors around the Grange Garden. Mary Hunt, Noreen Andrews, Patricia Nelson, Charlotte Wells, and Kathy Ryan welcome guests to Salish. Belinda Jimenez gave a Vermicompost demo to standing room only audience, unfortunately the PDF file is too big to load up here for sharing. Visitors at Salish Coast also saw the first crop of apples and zinnias putting on their showy best.

Our deep thanks to all the volunteers who worked the rows and behind the scenes to make these gardens available to the public. Ten new volunteers have joined our merry group just in time for the high harvest season. Thank you!

Fairwind's New Washstand

Thu, 18 Sep 2025 03:10:33 GMT

The Fairwinds team takes re-use to a new level of usefulness.

Milly Lierman (co-garden manager) and Keith Lierman (volunteer) put their scavenging skills and Keith's wood working talents to work on a new wash station at Fairwinds Food Bank Garden. A generous grant from the Jefferson County Master Gardeners Foundation was awarded mid year, which has provided funding and a request for re-use for this great addition to last year's donated shed from the Community Boat Project. Milly and Keith and co-manager Gayle Petrick are all truly passionate about re-use and re-purposing materials and made the most of that focus while designing and building this project.

Though the roofing material was brand new, along with posts, joists and some of the main structure, the remaining structure, shelving and countertops are all re-use wood primarily from Keith and Milly and their friend Scott (who also donated hundreds of screws to the project!). Keith made the most out of Douglas fir wood that was used for deck material packaging prior to its new life, and other wood had been collected at Fairwinds in the past by Gayle and others.

The roof materials are consistent with the existing shed, including a sky light feature. Gutters and downspouts are also added, along with re-use 50 gallon barrels to store rain water. All 3 sinks were purchased last year at the quintessential re-use store in Port Townsend, Waste Not Want Not and the wash station was designed around them. Most of the plumbing was also procured there.

Fairwinds Food Bank Garden is grateful to all who have contributed to this new important function that helps the volunteer crew deliver clean fresh food to the Port Townsend Food Bank!

Other donations:

All gutter/drainpipe and plumbing from Waste Not/Want Not, reused from the Lierman's home remodeling job, or from irrigation pipe that Gayle Petrick had on hand
Plumbing for greywater from the sinks and cistern (water collection) overflow primarily donated by Gayle
Low shelf material came with a donation of sawdust last year
Stepping stones came from Barbara Tusting at the Grange Garden
Small gravel filler came from Kim Duddy
Wrought iron art (also reclaimed) (Liermans)
Weather seal for the counter top (Liermans)

Garden ParDEE!

Thu, 18 Sep 2025 00:16:11 GMT

The best food in town is at a Food Bank Grower's potluck

Every fall we try to take a moment to celebrate accomplishments and our fellow gardeners. This year FairWinds Garden hosted the event with a pop-up party in the garden complete with FairWinds wine and amazing food by our gardeners, (now) cooks. The new wash station was given it's first gig by transforming into a bar and food service station.

It was a perfect, fall evening of which all vowed the we have to do this more often.

August Newsletter 2025

Fri, 22 Aug 2025 14:51:41 GMT

Growing Fast!

In this month’s newsletter...

Harvest & Gleaning Pounds, Plant Starts, and Hours
Events and Announcements
Plumtastic Sauce Recipe
August In the Garden with Dianna

YEAR TO DATE STATS

3607 Pounds of Grown Produce

125 Pounds of Gleaned Produce

1058 Plant Starts Given Away

3792 Volunteer Hours

Due to the late spring, all gardens are lower in volume compared to prior years, however, that same late spring kicked off an early gleaning season for plums. Volunteer hours reflect many things that are growing, i.e. our commitment to each other and the community. Thank you all for your time, talents, and passion for fresh food.

Are you a self-starter? We need co-managers who can work along side the experts. Help us grow by volunteering here.

EVENTS and ANNOUNCEMENT S

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Nature Always Wins: Gardening Strategies to Even the Odds

Tuesday, August 12, 2025,

6:30-7:30 p.m .

Free presentation at

Quimper Grange, 1219 Corona Ave PT

by Julia Cordz -- Julia will share tips on how to rodent and deer proof your garden and keep it off their “top ten” list of places to nibble.

Now on KPTZ Airdate July 3rd: In the Garden, with Julia Cordz, Barbara Faurot, Mary Beth Haralovich, and Dianna Wiklund. The show airs Thursday from 6-6:30pm.

RAISED BEDS INCREASED PRODUCTION

Read how the Quimper Grange Garden’s recent renovations have changed the way they garden.

HOW TO HAVE GREAT FRUIT EVERY YEAR

The PT gleaners do more than glean, they also maintain the fruit orchard at Blue Heron School. Read about their technique here.

PLUMTASTIC PLUM SAUCE

Janice Pastor makes the most of it with one sauce that fits all applications.
Get the Recipe here.

AUGUST IN THE GARDEN

By Master Gardener Dianna Wiklund

Weather

August is our warmest month with a high average of 67.8°F and a low of 55.4°F. It is looking like it will start off slightly cooler this year then warm up later in the month. Port Townsend's average rainfall is only 0.63" spread over 6.6 days. Although we may get more this year, it is still not enough for our veggies which need at least an inch of water each week.

Rosaceae

Many of the berries we love are part of the Rosacea family and can be treated similarly to other members of the family. Rosaceae includes various edible fruits, such as apples pears, quinces, apricots, plums, cherries, peaches, raspberries, blackberries, loquats, strawberries, rose hips, hawthorns, as well as almonds.

One of the things many of us forget is to keep watering our berries after they are harvested. Strawberry plants are currently putting on next year's buds, which are held closely in the center of the plant. The amount of water they get now determines how many berries they will have come on next spring. So keep watering. Raspberries are also in need of water to put on healthy canes for next year's fruit.

Planting

Fall/Winter garden planting can continue this month with cool season varieties of many greens including lettuces, spinach, and turnips for greens. Root vegetables like beets, carrots, bunching onions and radishes can also be planted throughout August.
You can still transplant out overwintering varieties of cabbage and cauliflower.
Remember to interplant to use as much of your growing space as possible and get the most harvest you can. This also helps with weed suppression and retaining moisture.

Garden tasks

Green beans and summer squash can be harvested every other day. Both need constant attention or they will get away from us. If we harvest our beans and squash and sprouting broccoli often, they will continue to put on more for us to harvest until the weather gets too cold for the plant to survive. Once a plant sets seed, the seeds mature in the pods and they will stop producing more flowers. If you let the pods go to a very large size, the plant will stop producing.
Tomatoes and cucumbers are in full production. Like green beans, these plants too will give you a longer harvest if they are kept picked. Remember to remove lower leaves and densely packed leaves to keep the air circulating. This also helps avoid possible diseases.
Remember to mulch well under your winter squash. A layer of straw can help keep weeds down, soil moist, and keep your squash up out of the dirt.
You can harvest some new potatoes now but remember they will only keep for about a week. Be careful not to disturb the roots too much, so the rest of the potatoes will continue to grow.
Early potato varieties may be ready soon. Once the plant dies back, stop watering for two weeks before harvesting to allow the skins to toughen up a bit. Rinse gently to remove most of the dirt and dry them well before storing the potatoes in a cool dark location.
This is a good time to add a bit of compost to heavy feeders like squash and celery. Add an inch deep layer of compost spread around the roots to about 6 - 8 inches from the base of the plant. Don’t amend root veggies as it can make them very hairy.

With harvest in full swing it is sometimes hard to remember to stop in the garden, stretch and look around. The abundance given to us by the world is amazing: sunlight and good soil with water and a bit of attention we can gather in healthy, tasty produce. What a joy a garden can be and how joyful it is to share its bounty. This is truly a time to be thankful we live in such a glorious place.

Happy Gardening everyone.

Dianna

Dianna's Garden Consulting

(360) 643-0090 - send a direct text

Give a man a fish you feed him for a day.

Teach a man to fish you feed him for a life time.

Teach a person to garden and you feed their whole community.

Everyone is Welcome

We’re so grateful for our volunteers! Feel free to join us and explore opportunities to grow, glean, or help remotely. Just let us know what interests you, and we’d love to get you involved!

Go Figger

Thu, 21 Aug 2025 19:04:28 GMT

What to do with a bounty of Figs?

Each year gleaners pick figs for themselves because these yummy sacks of jellied goodness do not last more than a couple of days once picked. Most people don't know what to do with them. Below is a primer...

#1 EAT THEM FRESH while they are ripe to perfection. (see photo left / slightly white pith and red jelly -- the darker, the sweeter the fig.) How do you know when that is? First, do not pick them unless they are ripe. Figs don't continue to ripen on the counter like apples or tomatoes. Look to see if they are starting to droop at the neck while still hanging on the tree, if they are droopy that means that the neck is soft and so is the fruit. You can also give them a light squeeze, if they give, they are ready. Generally if you bite into them and the skin is still tough and the fruit tasteless, they aren't ripe.

#2 DRY THEM Gleaner, Jim Moore trims their necks off, slices them into quarters as seen in the photo then dries them on their non-sticky backs at a LOW (105 degree) temperature in a food dehydrator for 15-20 hours. By drying slow and low they will keep their gummy, chewy addictiveness. Dry them faster or higher and they get tough. Life is tough enough without tough figs.

Store in the frig for a couple of weeks or freeze them until the next time you need a bite of summer in your oatmeal or as a snack.

#3 JAM THEM by cooking up a big batch then can the jars or freeze the batch. Use this recipe that Kathy Ryan supplied a few years ago.

#4 PICKLE THEM by using Great Grandma's secret recipe or use this sweet option that tastes like Christmas and will wow guests when paired with cream cheese.

There are tons of options on the Internet. This area has an abundance of figs. Experiment!

More than Fair...

Fri, 15 Aug 2025 16:54:33 GMT

Once again the Food Bank Grower Gardens are the big winners at the Jefferson County Fair

Above:

Salish Coast Production Farm Manager Neil Howe with monster cauliflower head and Port Townsend High School co-manager, Doug Van Allen with his "Wowa" Wallas.

Quimper Grange Garden co-managers Mary Beth Haralovich and Barbara Tusting displaying all their ribbon takers.

Salish Coast Production Farm Managed by Neil Howe took the top awards:

Premier Exhibitor for both Agriculture and Horticulture
Best of Show for Horticulture with a pink Gladiolus
Agriculture - 67 total ribbons ( 43 blue, 22 red, 2 white, 2 unjudged)
Horticulture - 65 total ribbons (39 blue, 19 red, 7 white)

Port Townsend High School Culinary Garden co-managed by Doug Van Allen and Rachel Dunn won:

Agriculture - 15 total ribbons (11 blue, 4 red, 1 third)

Quimper Grange Garden co-managed by Mary Beth Haralovich and Barbara Tusting

Agriculture - 14 total ribbons (13 blue, 1 red)

Blessing Garden managed by Judith Johnson

6 Blue and 1 Red

The real winners of this competition are those who learned how to grow these beauties while volunteering in the gardens and also those who get to eat them later at the Food Banks, the Port Townsend Schools, below at the St. John's Episcopal Church Soup Kitchen. Below is the Grange Garden's red cabbage winner that later became soup at the kitchen.

Our grateful thank you to everyone who keeps this community growing!

Perfect Fruit EVERY year

Mon, 28 Jul 2025 17:13:00 GMT

How the Blue Heron Orchard grows consistent, kid-happy fruit

Above the Blue Heron Middleschool Orchard maintenance crowd is seen fine-tuning the this year's crop. In January they prune off the growth to keep trees low and "pickable" without a ladder. In June when the fruit is about nickle-sized, they thin the fruit to 4-6 inches from each other. Overcrowding means smaller fruit in the fall and also many NO fruit the next year as the tree needs to regain its composure. Proper thinning guarantees a robust crop each year.

Then comes July and the pruning/thinning process continues as well as taking off any fruit that looks scabby or buggy. The team wants the kids to have nothing but the best of experiences when harvesting fall fruit to eat fresh off the tree. Below is an example of what codling moth does to an apple (or pear). From the outside, it looks good, but on the inside -- surprise! No one likes surprises... You know an apple has codling moth damage when the bottom end of it has a pile of nastiness. (Note also that the apple isn't ready to pick because the seed is white.)

The team effort takes about two hours each time and is a fun way to learn about orchard management. If you want to learn-by-doing, please send your request to be on the maintenance volunteer group to PTgleaning@gmail.com

What happens to all that thinned fruit? It becomes fruit skittles for the deer to enjoy.

Interplanted People, Places, and Ideas

Mon, 28 Jul 2025 15:54:11 GMT

Growing Foodies from Scratch by the Port Townsend School Community

Available at Aldrich's, Imprint, and Amazon.

Have you ever asked one question that lead to a rabbit hole of more questions? That's what happened to grower/gleaner Mary Hunt while volunteering during the Salish Coast Production Farm development she wondered, who started this process? What about the teaching garden next to it? And the high school culinary garden that's been there forever or the orchard? How do they stay functioning year after year when school's out for summer?

As she delved into creating a timeline of who did what and when, it became obvious that the "who" was the Port Townsend community that just couldn't let the farm-to-school concept die out. It took over 20 years to create the growing, eating, learning, and even the business ideas highlighting local food appreciation. Today these diverse touch points seamlessly blend into the school life experience taking kids from sugary and salty meals to loving fresh pesto and then wanting to grow their own basil!

Interplanted: Growing Foodies from Scratch... captures this community effort to create an engaging farm to school, to cafeteria, to community journey while showcasing the program it has become today. The book provides ideas, but also could be used as a template for outlining how any school can advance programs and outcomes in their district. The larger PT community is embracing this effort by supporting levies, developing programs, providing volunteers, and individual funding.

INTERPLANTED captures:

How/why the movement started,
How the school administration got involved,
How properties were developed,
Quantitative success (nearly 14,000 pounds in 2024 total),
How the kitchens changed equipment,
What the kitchen staff needed to learn,
What recipes students now love,
Which local groups helped to move things forward.

The book's proceeds with go to help fund the operations of these valuable programs during these times when grants are being cut. Locally, Interplanted can be purchased at Aldrich's, Imprint or online on Amazon.

While climate change creates wind, floods, fires, and hail damaging to nationwide crops and sending up food prices... the Port Townsend region lives under a green bubble per se, of near perfect conditions for gardens. By growing produce people can put a dent in their grocery bill, increase the nutrition in their daily meals, and create memory-making moments... "In Port Townsend, being a foodie starts at our roots."

PlumTASTIC!

Mon, 28 Jul 2025 14:35:07 GMT

Sticky Plum Sauce Goes on Everything!

It looks like it's going to be a big plum season for the PT Gleaners. Sign up to glean and what doesn't go to organizations can come home with you to process into your own saucy delight.

If gleaner Janice Pastor doesn't turn them into wine or a plum cake, she makes a simple Asian Plum Sauce, to use on rice dishes, toast, meat, and even drizzled on other desserts.

Plum Sauce Ingredients
• 15-20 small to medium plums
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup red onion finely chopped
• 1 TBS grated fresh ginger
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 TBS sweet chili sauce

Slice plums in half and discard pits. Cut each half into about 6 chunks.
Mix plums in a saucepan with garlic, onion, ginger, soy sauce, and chili sauce.
Heat on medium for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Blend well with an immersion blender and add water to thin if desired.
Store in the freezer up to six months or the fridge up to two weeks; Or... home can water bath pints for 20 minutes and have ready on your self until next season.

Winter Gardens Raised Out of the Swamp

Wed, 16 Jul 2025 17:50:56 GMT

Increased yields by 166.5 pounds!

Quimper Grange FBG garden co-manager, Barbara Tusting shared the success of the garden's recent upgrades with the Port Townsend Noon Rotary Club. The group donated the funds for the project.

What a difference in production simply by raising soil up enough so that the winter rains will drain off the roots of plants instead of drowning them. By raising the beds they were able to grow 166.5 more pounds of food in the same space. The raised beds also gave them a structure to secure mesh to keep the bugs away from tender plants.

Garden volunteers worked together to build the new beds from new 2x12 slabs of wood.

Above, Barbara points out the result of another grant by the Food Co-op to provide REALLY raised beds for those who can't bend over or have a wheelchair, but still want to participate in growing food for the food banks.

The Quimper Grange Garden Volunteers have proven that if you have the will to grow something, there are many ways to get the best results.

Emergency Prep Picnic

Mon, 30 Jun 2025 16:43:21 GMT

Sustainable, Saveable, Plateable

Milly Lierman and Mary Hunt helped to kick off this year's Emergency Prep Day with a talk covering:

What to grow for long term, easy to have perennial food that can also raise your property's value, as well as easy to grow annuals.
What parts of the those plants can you eat.
What are the best ways to store them over winter.

Attached is a PDF of the above charts.

Afterwards they joined Barbara Tusting and Noreen Andrews at the FBG booth talking to the public about what services FBG provide and how they can get involved.

In tandem with our push for self-growth, per se is the Fresh Food Connect app that helps home gardeners find a food bank near them, the donation hours, and then typing in their contribution before delivering. This app solves for "the zucchini problem" when you have an over abundance of a crop and you don't want it to go to waste.

June Newletter 2025

Thu, 05 Jun 2025 18:08:41 GMT

Ground Up News

Ground Up Newsletter

A composted mix of tips, plants, and the growers who tend to our gardens

June 2025 Food Bank Growers

In this month’s newsletter...

Events Coming Up
June in the Garden with Dianna

Artist and Editor - Bear (They/Them) FBG Vice President

Events Coming Up

June 28th FBG will be in the all County Preparedness Day at Finnriver

Come learn about planting for Food Security!

Gratitude

Thank you Lee Bebout for holding down the Farmer’s Market booth in PT and Chimacum. Lee made lots of great contacts and new volunteers. We are so excited to see y’all in the garden!

Thanks to the Food Co-op an their Farmers fund - the Quimper Grange has a new accessibility bed so anyone can come and garden. Thank you Barbara for advocating for inclusive gardens!

Last but not least Thank Keith Lierman, Jim Moore, Jerome Zygar, and Mary Hunt for donating, building, and painting a new tool shed at Salish Coast. The 8x14 foot shed will house garden tools and supplies and an office space for Farmer Neil and Farmer Isabel.

Big Drip Campaign

Little drops of cash add up so that we can support our volunteers, gardens and schools that feed our local community.

Please Donate at Give Butter

June In the Garden

June Gloom or Junuary is how locals describe this month, but it is not looking like that will be the case this year. It is looking like our Junuary happened in May and June may actually warm up. NOAA is predicting that we will get slightly warmer and drier weather than usual. Our average temperatures are between a high of 65 ° and a low of 51 ° F. with an average rainfall of 1.8”. Remember that our vegetables need at least an inch of water every week. So it is time to really get our irrigation schedules in full swing.

Winter Gardening:

Yup — the middle of June is the time to start planning your winter garden. Much of what we can harvest all winter long can be started now and transplanted out as our Spring crops finish off. Getting starts ready for winter is a little different than Spring, though. Most seeds have an upper limit to their germination temperature that we need to pay attention to. Most brassicas won't germinate over 80 ° F . Find a coolish shady location to get your brassicas going so they are ready to transplant out in July. Keep them moist and protected from plant predators like birds and slugs.

What to plant:

Beans (both bush and pole), celery, cucumbers, corn and squash
Beets, carrots, leeks, turnips
Lettuce, pac choi, and spinach in shady locations
Brassicas like brussel sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and kale
Transplant tomatoes and peppers out under cloches and water with warm water.

Harvesting:

So very many greens! All the possible combinations of greens are available for salad or steaming or adding to stir fries. We are so lucky to be able to grow lots and lots of wonderful healthy greens.
Berries both wild and domesticated. Strawberries and raspberries; salmonberries and serviceberries; currants, and rhubarb. Ok, rhubarb isn’t a berry but it makes wonderful pies and muffins, and can be used in savory dishes.
Sprouting broccoli and early or overwintering cabbage.
Peas! Snaps peas and snow peas and shelling peas oh my!
Herbs should be harvested before they flower for best flavor, although the flower can be used as well to flavor and color many dishes.

Garden work:

Hilling potatoes takes a lot of my time this month. Keeping my potatoes hilled up so the new potatoes don’t turn green in the sun takes the largest part of my time and energy in June. New potatoes form from the seed or mother potato up to about 12”. So it is important to keep them covered at least that far.
Picking slugs is also on going. I lay out boards or cardboard at the ends of my beds then look under them every morning, collect the slugs and snails and feed them to my ducks. You can also just seal them in bags or containers and send them to the landfill. Hopefully they will be mostly gone after this month as the summer dries out.

June brings a lot of time spent in the garden doing so very many different things. From soil preparation to planting, weeding and harvesting to just plain enjoying being out in the fresh air and sunshine. This is a time to revel in the abundance that we can grow here in the Pacific NorthWest. We are so very lucky to live here and have so much we can share with those around us. June in the garden reminds me that life is good.

Happy Gardening,

Dianna Wiklund

Everyone is Welcome

We’re so grateful for our volunteers! Feel free to join us and explore opportunities to grow, glean, or help remotely. Just let us know what interests you, and we’d love to get you involved!

Volunteer Sign Up

Thank you FBG Community!

May Newletter 2025

Thu, 05 Jun 2025 17:40:37 GMT

Ground Up News

Ground Up Newsletter

A composted mix of tips, plants, and the growers who tend to our gardens

April 2025 Food Bank Growers

In this month’s newsletter...

Events Coming Up
Exciting News
May in the Garden with Dianna

Artist and Editor - Bear (They/Them) FBG Vice President

Events Coming Up

Farmers Market

May 10th at Port Townsend

May 11th at Chimacum

Port Townsend Farmers Market

Come say hello and learn more about Food Bank Growers at the local Farmer’s Markets! Excited to see you there!

Food for Thought

Quimper Grange's Food For Thought presents a free discussion on

BioChar and Terra Preta - Tues, May 13 at the Quimper Grange, 1219 Corona St, PT. Doors open at 6:15 for this 6:30 talk.

Attendees will be given an overview of biochar history, production and uses, including local examples (Jefferson and Clallam counties). Biochar is produced in simple micro-gasifier stoves, kilns and industrial processes. Biochar can be used as a soil amendment and water filter media for the removal of heavy metals.

The presentation is structured for maximum attendee Q&A. Francesco and Lowell will present:

- A short history, overview, of Biochar (Terra Preta) both globally and locally.

- Local production and availability of Biochar.

- Examples of uses on the Olympic Peninsula, highlighting use at Dietz Farm and its potential health benefits.

Biochar and mushroom kits will be available for purchase at the presentation, cash or check only.

Big Drip Campaign

Little drops of cash add up so that we can support our volunteers, gardens and schools that feed our local community.

Please Donate at Give Butter

Exciting News

FBG Partners with Fresh Food Connect!

With prices going up on all food items and more people needing the food safety net of the Food Banks, we are asking those who can't volunteer in a Food Bank Growers garden to bring some of their extra produce they are growing at home to the food bank. Learn more with the link above!

Hydroponic at Salish Coast

Thanks to our incredible community we now have hydroponics at Salish Coast Elementary School! Click the link above to read more!

Gratitude for our Volunteers

Thank you so much for supporting our Spring Plant Sale! We couldn’t have done it without our dedicated volunteers.

Cheers to a beautiful Spring and our wonderful community

May In the Garden

By Master Gardener Dianna Wiklund

Historically May begins with a few days of really warm weather sometime in the first two weeks. These are critical for planting our warm weather crops out in the garden and getting them to germinate. Looks like this year we will get our warm weather later in May than usual if it shows up at all. Port Townsend has an average high temperature of 58.8°F and a low of 47.7°F. Rainfall of about 1.65" in May.

The 3 sisters

Corn: To help our warm weather crop get off to a good start. Direct sowing, or transplanting out corn that has been started indoors, gives the best chance of an actual crop, at least for those who have cool shady gardens. Season extenders like row covers, cloches and cold frames help.

Squash: Direct seeding summer squash or transplanting under cloches will give them a boost in growth and keep them warm as we head into Junuary.

Beans: Interplant bush beans in between the corn gives them support as they grow and they also benefited from the warm ground created by the nearby cloches.

Notes: I have found that if I cover my corn and squash with progressively larger cloches over the next two months I get larger harvests sooner. I have even experimented with covering my corn crop with a hoop house made from a cattle panel and greenhouse plastic. It worked really well. I cover half the bed with the hoop house and left the other half open and I harvest earlier and more corn and beans from under the hoop house. I did have to remove the plastic in July as the corn got too tall.

Planting

Herbs - Dill, Chamomile, Cilantro, Mint, Parsley, basically any annual herb can go in now.
Root veg. - Beets, Radishes & Carrots - remember to cover carrots to keep the seeds moist (burlap or cardboard just until they germinate. Then switch to a row cover to keep out rust fly.
Brassica - Transplant or direct sow: Broccoli, Cauliflower, Cabbage, Brussels Sprouts…
Salad Greens - Spinach, Lettuce, Asian greens
Winter Gardening - Start Swiss chard, Parsley and Parsnips for harvest next winter.

Harvesting

Rejoice in the sweet fresh greens that are coming in now! And celebrate the early fruits ripening in our gardens.

Salads - Arugula, asian greens, corn salad, lettuce, spinach and radishes and just of few of our early salad crops.
Sprouting Broccoli & asparagus are great lightly steamed.
Many herbs can be harvested now before they start to bloom.
Fruit - Rhubarb & early strawberries sweeten up our meals. Ok Rhubarb isn’t sweet but made into a pie it can’t be beat.

Garden work -

Slug picking continues this month as they really like the new shoots coming up fresh and tender. The addition of well rinsed seaweed or dry crushed eggshells around your new starts can deter some of the slugs.
This is often the beginning of the irrigation season. Test your lines and repair or replace damaged components. I highly recommend a timer on your water system whether you use soaker hoses or a drip system, timers are a good way to keep your watering steady and consistent.

Enjoy our warm days in May as a taste of what summer will bring when it finally arrives in July. Remember to spend time just relaxing in your garden. Bring out a chair and just sit and watch and breathe. This can be very healing and informative as you relax and see all the wonderful life that is attracted to the beauty of healthy happy plants.

Happy Gardening,

Dianna Wiklund

Everyone is Welcome

We’re so grateful for our volunteers! Feel free to join us and explore opportunities to grow, glean, or help remotely. Just let us know what interests you, and we’d love to get you involved!

Volunteer Sign Up

Thank you FBG Community!

In the Garden is On the Air!

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Sat, 31 May 2025 21:40:29 GMT

Airing 6-6:30pm on first and third Thursdays starting June 5

The FBG highly endorses this new platform to learn what to grow this week. IN THE GARDEN shares practical wisdom and science-based research on all things gardening in our maritime Pacific Northwest region. Each episode is timed to the garden this month – what to expect from the weather, what garden tasks are calling, what to plant now, what’s ready to harvest, what to do, and not to do. The show covers a lot of ground – the how, the why and the when – the mistakes and the fun of gardening. Join Master Gardeners Julia , Barbara and Dianna , along with Food Bank grower Mary Beth , and friends each month. We welcome your comments and questions at inthegarden@kptz.org .

Go to KPTZ website for more information.

FBG Partners with Fresh Food Connect

Mon, 28 Apr 2025 21:00:00 GMT

Be a FBGrower Volunteer or Grow at Home

Fresh Food Connect is an "app" that facilitates food distribution.

If you have too many zuchinni...

Sign up for the app on your phone.
Log in and see where you can donate based on your zip code.
Note home many approximate pounds your bringing in and to which drop off point.
That's it! When the day/time comes - go drop off your produce.

It's a simple bridge to bringing more food to those who need it most while making the most of the abundance of food we can grow in our county. Climate change hasn't hit us yet, but has hit the majority of the United States with floods, wind, drought, fire... those disasters are part of the reason prices are so high. By growing our own culture of local, fresh food, we help to stabilize our own needs.

Questions? Contact MaryClareHunt@gmail.com

Hydroponics at Salish Coast

Mon, 28 Apr 2025 18:16:05 GMT

Over 3700 heads of lettuce a year

It's been a long, LONG time from getting a grant (Thank you USDA), to having the Greenhouse infrastructure put in (Thank You PT Noon Rotary), to obtaining a hydroponics system (Thank You PT Food Coop,) to getting it installed (Thank You Lee and Brad Bebout), to being able to pick lettuce (Thank You Neil Howe). WOW!!! What a harvest! According to Neil, the system should provide over 3700 heads of lettuce a year.

On the opposite side of the greenhouse being planted today (April 28) are strawberries, (Thank you FBG Volunteers). We can't wait to see how they produce under the tricked out and perfect conditions of the greenhouse.

Well done PT Community, you are creating food security.

April Newsletter 2025

Wed, 02 Apr 2025 19:22:11 GMT

Ground Up News

Ground Up Newsletter

A composted mix of tips, plants, and the growers who tend to our gardens

April 2025 Food Bank Growers

In this month’s newsletter...

Events Coming Up
April in the Garden with Dianna

Artist and Editor - Bear (They/Them) FBG Vice President

Events Coming Up

Plant Sale April 5th

Join us on Saturday, April 5th from 10am-1pm at the Quimper Grange for Food Bank Growers' Spring Plant Sale! The Grange is located at 1219 Corona St, PT.

We have an exciting and bountiful presentation this Spring with many vegetable starts, berries, herbs, flowers, and other plants ready to put in the ground. We also have related items such as weeding certificates, calendula salve, hand-collected seeds for sale, and plant ID tags.

FBG Plant sales are more than just fundraisers — they are a way to directly feed our community! Every purchase helps FBG gardens to provide fresh, healthy food to food banks and other entities. By helping with these events, you’re investing in local sustainability, supporting neighbors, and ensuring that everyone has access to nutritious, homegrown produce.

We are also pleased to host the Master Gardner’s Plant Clinic and the WSU Seed Library at this event.

Help us to grow a stronger, more food-secure community!

Farmers Market April 12th

Port Townsend Farmers Market

Come say hello and learn more about Food Bank Growers at the local Farmer’s Market! Excited to see you there!

Spring Clean Up Work Party

Salish Coast Garden

Saturday, April 12 from 10 AM-1 PM

Salish Coast Elementary School Production Farm

1637 Grant Street (park on the street)

We’ve been going through growing pains with a new Greenhouse and infrastructure taking our time. Please volunteer to help weed and tidy at the farm that supplies thousands of pounds of produce to schoolchildren every year! No need to sign up, just show up. Thank you!!!

Suggested packing list:

Hat
Layers of clothing in anticipation of variable weather conditions (if you work inside the new greenhouse, it may be warm!)
Sunscreen, even if weather is cloudy!
Camp chair in case you need to sit and rest
Garden Gloves
Cushions, etc. to make sitting and kneeling on the ground more comfortable.
Your favorite weeding tools from home, if you have any
Full water bottle
Snacks

Big Drip Campaign

Little drops of cash add up so that we can support our volunteers, gardens and schools that feed our local community.

Please Donate at Give Butter

April In the Garden

By Master Gardener Dianna Wiklund

April looks to start off cooler and wetter than average. Average temperatures in April are 52°/43°F. We should get a little less than 2 inches of rain this month. Average is 1.73”. Many of our gardens are still saturated from the winter rains and not ready to plant in. Raised beds become very appealing in cool damp springs. They help get our roots out of the standing water and tend to warm up faster than planting in the ground. It was damp springs like this one that started me on raising my beds up above the water level years ago. Just 8” helps a lot.

Now is the time of year when season extenders really shine. A row cover over a freshly planted bed or cloches over new transplants can make all the difference in getting a spring garden off to a good start. Cold frames and hoop houses are two other ways to bring a bit more warmth to your soil. Anything that focuses the sun's energy and reduces the wind on new transplants will help. Cold frames can easily be made from old windows or skylights. Clear plastic bottles can be used as cloches: just remove the bottom and the cap, then place over your plants. Remove when the leaves start touching the sides.

Planting:

Potatoes - as soon as the ground dries out enough these can be planted about 6 - 8” down but above the water level. Mound dirt or mulch up on them as they grow until it is 12” above your seed potato. This will help to keep any potatoes that grow near the top from turning green.
Peas can still be planted or transplanted now.
Beets, spinach, carrots, dill, parsley, asian greens, broccoli, brussel sprouts, kale, radishes, leeks, lettuce are just a few of what can be directly sown in April.
Transplanting out right now would include - onion starts, all the brassicas, and most salad greens.
Corn - I have found that if I start my corn in the last two weeks of April in compostable tubes or pots then I can transplant it out in May during the brief warm period we usually get before June gloom sets in. This gives my corn crop a bit of a boost and I may actually get to eat corn in September. I have also taken to putting a greenhouse plastic hoop frame over the corn starts for added warmth.
Winter Gardening - For those who are really thinking ahead, April is the time to put in Swiss chard, Parsley and Parsnips for harvest next fall and winter.

Harvesting:

Asparagus will start poking up this month, remember to only cut shoots that are larger than a pencil.
Sprouting broccoli is really starting to put out now and is a welcome addition to our spring menus.
Many, many greens are popping up all over. They can bring delightful new flavors to all our meals, not just salads.

Garden work:

It is slug time again. Remove slugs from the garden with daily/nightly slug walks. If we are diligent now, there will be fewer later.
Set up irrigation and check over for needed repairs. Getting an early start on this will help when May comes along with its two weeks of warm dry weather.
If you haven’t already, turn under or cut down your cover crops. Using them as green mulch can help warm up your soil as they decompose.

April is a time of hope and beauty. As the bulbs that have slept underground erupt into a glorious display of flowers, so will the seeds we are sowing spring up into the nutritious vegetables we want to enjoy all summer long.

Remember to stop and breathe in your garden, look for the joy and beauty that is the life of a gardener.

Happy Gardening,

Dianna Wiklund ��

Everyone is Welcome

We’re so grateful for our volunteers! Feel free to join us and explore opportunities to grow, glean, or help remotely. Just let us know what interests you, and we’d love to get you involved!

Volunteer Sign Up

Thank you FBG Community!

Field Trip to Brinnon's Food Bank

Wed, 05 Feb 2025 02:40:09 GMT

Thank You Brian's Garden!

On January 28th, team members Lys, Denny, and Amber visited the Brinnon Food Bank to connect with the community and gather feedback for the upcoming growing season. By 9:30 AM, a dozen cars were already lined up, highlighting the food bank’s significance.

Cecile, a Jefferson County Master Gardener, was present and shared that produce from Brian’s Garden is highly popular, particularly sauté greens, lettuce mix, and carrots. Customers frequently request cilantro, parsley, basil, green onions, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and more. The introduction of recipes alongside “unusual” foods proved successful, leading to plans for additional informational note cards this season.

Eloise, the food bank director, reported that the Brinnon Food Bank serves an average of 140 families per week , reaching 172 during holidays. The operation relies on 39 volunteers , who collect donations five days a week and deliver food to those unable to visit in person.

Customers were asked about their produce preferences, resulting in the following top requests:

Produce Requested :

Corn - IIIII
Zucchini - IIII
Beets - III
Tomatoes - III
Cucumbers (Green) - III
Brussels Sprouts - III
Radishes - III
Broccoli - II
Kale - II
String Beans - I
Kohlrabi - I
Cucumbers (Lemon) - I
Cauliflower - I
Carrots - I
Peas - I
Parsnips - I
Asparagus - I
Herbs - I
Bell Peppers - I
Lettuce - I
Spinach - I
Sweet Potatoes - I
Butternut Squash - I
Turnips - I

This is fantastic feedback while in finalizing the garden plan, ensuring that the most needed produce is grown. The dedication of Brian’s Garden team members continues to make a meaningful impact on the community.

February Newsletter 2025

Sun, 02 Feb 2025 04:44:30 GMT

Ground Up News

A composted mix of tips, plants, and the growers who tend to our gardens

February 2025 Food Bank Growers Newsletter

In this month’s newsletter...

Strength in Resilience
Thank you Mark Paxton & Lys Burden!
2024 FBG Annual Report
Big Drip Donation Campaign
February in the Garden

Artist and Editor - Bear (They/Them) FBG Vice President

Strength in Resilience

2025 has begun hotter than ever, testing our strength and resilience. As we walk through the fire, we invite our community to hold on to this reminder:

“ Nature is Resilient and We are Nature. ”

Our commitment to restoring, protecting, and feeding our ecosystems and community will not be shaken. With Mary Hunt stepping in as our new President and Bear Belle as Vice President, alongside our dedicated board members and volunteers, we are cultivating a future where the local community doesn’t just endure but thrives for generations to come.

Together, through stewardship of the gardens and support for one another, we will emerge stronger, more connected, and more resilient than ever.

Thank You, Mark Paxton & Lys Burden

A huge thank you to Mark Paxton and Lys Burden for their dedication to Food Bank Growers.

Mark stepped up when we needed it most, securing a crucial grant for our 2025 goals and driving our mission forward with determination.

Lys, a founding member, has been with us from the start—helping launch the High School Garden, Seed Bank, and Growing Groceries. Her vision and commitment continue to inspire us all.

We are grateful for their leadership and impact!

Check out the 2024 Food Bank Growers Annual Report!

Big Drip Campaign

Little drops of cash add up so that we can support our volunteers, gardens and schools that feed our local community.

Please Donate at Give Butter

Food for Thought

Pruning tips for apples, pears, and plum trees with Doug Van Allen, Master Gardener.

Tuesday, February 11, 2025, 6:30-7:30 p.m.

Quimper Grange, 1219 Corona Ave, PT

Doors open at 6:15 • All Are Welcome

February In the Garden

By Master Gardener Dianna Wiklund

February is once again starting off cold. Not the hard freeze of last year but still cool enough that working in the garden can be less than fun. There is a good chance that temperatures will be below average, which is 47 ° - 39 ° F, with above average precipitation, average is 2.28" for the month. There is the possibility of snowfall which averages 2.87" in Port Townsend in February. So it is a great time to focus on Garden plans and indoor starts.

Planting:

Now is the time to decide how many starts to grow. Do you really have room for a dozen tomato plants or would 6 be better, giving them more room to breathe and grow. I always over plant my starts to cover any that don’t come up or suffer damage from passing cats and other hazards. Remember that plants do better with more space around them. I was reminded by some Master Gardener friends that fewer plants will grow just as much produce for the same space as plants packed too close together. Plus they tend to be healthier. Extra starts can always be donated to neighbors, friends or the food banks.

Things to start this month include:

Tomatoes and Peppers on heat mats and under lights.
Onions without extra heat or light as they are photosensitive and the reduction of light, when transplanted out, may cause them to bulb up early. They need to be in a warmish place but don’t need a heat mat.
Brassicas can be started now inside. Start on a heat mat to germinate them and remove to a well lit area.They become very leggy with too much heat.
Celery and lettuce can also be started now. Room temperature is fine for these.
Peas can be started now for transplanting out once it warms up a bit. This helps them get well enough started to survive some pea weevil damage.

In the garden it will be a bit more challenging. Once the ground is thawed you can direct sow

Arugula, beets, peas can be direct sown.
Garlic and onion sets may also be sown. Yes, you can still plant garlic, you will just harvest it a bit later in the year. Mulch to maintain soil moisture and warmth.

I would recommend row covers over anything that is direct sown this month for added warmth and protection for local birds looking for a spring treat.

Harvesting

For the forethoughtful amongst us the harvest continues.

Sunchokes need to be harvested now before the ground warms.
Winter greens are still putting on a few new leaves.
Brussel sprouts , Broccoli raab and overwintering Cauliflower add a lot of nutrients to our winter diet.
Many root vegetables are still holding on and — if they were well mulched and not found by rodents — brighten our meal times with their sweetness.
Don’t forget the evergreen herbs. We can harvest them all winter long.

Garden work

Divide perennials, like artichokes, and spread them throughout your garden and community.
It is time to turn in or cut down cover crops. Let them start to decay a bit before planting time.
Orchards are busy this time of year with both planting bare roots trees and berry bushes and pruning older ones.

The thing about February is you never know what will happen. It is a little different every year. February is a wonderful time when we can see our gardens covered in a light blanket of snow or watch the new bud begin to form on the tree. Will the ground be frozen or will the crocuses bloom. Will the lettuce survive and start putting on new growth as the light returns or will it freeze and die. It is a time of uncertainty and also a time of hope, anticipation and potential. Dead plants can be composted to feed next year's crops. Right now our gardens are full of possibilities. Enjoy all that our gardens and our lives can become in this time of uncertainty. Choose to find the joy in your garden and in your life.

Happy Gardening ��

Dianna Wiklund

FBG Garden Coordinator

Everyone is Welcome

We’re so grateful for our volunteers! Feel free to join us and explore opportunities to grow, glean, or help remotely. Just let us know what interests you, and we’d love to get you involved!

Volunteer Sign Up

Thank you FBG Community!

January Newsletter 2025

Wed, 01 Jan 2025 18:02:53 GMT

Winter Greens turn to Summer Dreams

Happy New Year!

It’s time to re-oil the tools, plant some spring onions, and clean up the garden that is so last year… Welcome to 2025. Need a new way to provide a positive impact on our community? Help us in the garden or online all skills are appreciated.

Did you know that FBG Volunteers live longer because they aren’t afraid of dirt, making new friends, or tasting the latest recipe someone creates? (Garden gloves over our hearts… we all swear it’s true.) We’ll be holding a “New Volunteer” meeting on January 15th at 5:00 pm. (Zoom) If you’ve already sent us a note, we’ll be getting in contact soon. If you would like a reminder sent, please let us know via FoodBankGrowers@gmail.com . (“new volunteer” in the subject line please.)

Do you have communication skills, but maybe not green thumbs? We could use your help as a volunteer coordinator(s). A full list of tasks can be found here. We’ll happily split them up to make things more doable. Go here for details.

Thank you Jo Yount

A decades long grower and giver, is honored. Read all about it here.

Food for Thought

This month’s offering is on “The Secret of Shellfish”, held at the Quimper Grange on January 14, 6:30-7:30. Go here for more details. (doors open at 615_

January in the Garden

2025 is looking to start off warm and wet. Our average temperatures are between 44° F to 36° F. NOAA forecasts a 59% chance that we will transition into La Nina in January or February. Until then we are likely to be above average on the lows and near average on the highs. Our rainfall averages 2.5 inches in January. It is looking like we might get more than that this month. This is the type of year I dig drainage ditches in my garden so the beds don’t sit in water for months. Even our winter crops don’t want to sit in standing cold water. Look for ways to drain off all the excess water to some place that can use it or store it for later.

Many of us start ordering in our seeds this month. I recommend ordering from local suppliers. Not just to support local businesses (which is a good enough reason) but also because they are mostly growing their seed here so the plants are adapted to local growing conditions. If your seeds come from farther away like the east coast then you won't’ know if they will thrive in our area. It is always a bit of a gamble. There are several good local seed companies in Jefferson County, western Washington or British Columbia that all grow most of their stock here and test what works best with our local conditions. Look in your local gardening store, the Coop, or the Corner Store for who is selling seeds raised nearby.

Here is a list to get you started.

Salt Water Seeds out of Chimacum
Deep Harvest Seeds - Whidbey Island
Osbourne seeds - Mt. Vernon
West Coast - Vancouver Island

Planting - Indoor starts

To get an early start, begin Alliums now. Onions and leeks benefit from a long slow start. Do not use artificial lighting as they can be sensitive to changing light and skip bulbing going straight to flowering. They can take a bit of warmth to get them started.
Lettuce can also be started now. Again they don’t need much heat to germinate just temperature above 40° F. They don’t mind the addition of some light but can manage with our local light levels.
Artichokes - If you are feeling adventurous then try starting your own artichokes from seed. This is a longer process but it can be very rewarding.
Marigolds and Nasturtiums can be started now for transplanting out at the end of February or after danger of any hard freeze has passed.

Harvesting

Greens continue to thrive in our warmer winter this year. As the light returns, they will start to put on additional leaves.
Root veggies can still be harvested. Watch for standing water and try to pull any that are in danger of rotting.
Broccoli and Brussel sprouts are still putting on and should continue through the next couple of months.
Perennial herbs are also available to liven up our meals.

Garden work

Set up propagation areas with lights and heat mats. You might even start a few tomatoes for a really early crop if all goes well. They will need to be transplanted up several times but the early fruit can make the effort worth it.
If you are in doubt about any of your seeds, this is a good time for germination testing.
Place 10 seeds on a paper plate or egg carton; cover with a paper towel or napkin; moisten and cover with plastic. Keep moist and let sit for 5 - 14 days.
Depending on the seeds, you can put them on your heat mats and under lights if needed. Or just put them in a warm place that is easy to check.
Start checking daily after the first 4 days and see how many germinate. If none do, then compost the rest of the packet. If some do, then you can decide how many seeds to plant in each spot based on the percentage that germinated.
Plant out or transplant any that do germinate for an early start.
This is also a good time to rake up all the fruit tree leaves in your orchard. This will destroy the habitat for some of the nasty bugs that infect our fruit. Plus if it does freeze, the bugs may be killed off and this year's fruit will be healthier.

As the darkest time of year passes and we start looking forward to more light and growth, our gardens can be a source of daily joy and healing in our lives. There is scientific proof that gardening is healthy for our bodies and our minds. The garden is a place where we can focus on:

What good is happening now.
What joy is happening now.
What kindness we can do now.

May each and every one of you find that health, joy, and kindness growing in your hearts this year.

Happy Gardening

Dianna Wiklund ��

FBG Garden Coordinator

Wanted: Volunteer Coordinator

Wed, 01 Jan 2025 17:22:28 GMT

Help us grow our group

VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR JOB DESCRIPTION

The Volunteer Coordinator is an essential position in Food Bank Growers. They interact with all volunteers in the FBG organization. They will become familiar with the mission and goals of the organization and the basics of garden management. They will become knowledgeable about each garden’s operations, and the gardening philosophies within. Current committee chairs and garden managers will inform the Volunteer Coordinator about what type of volunteer is needed for each garden or committee. For new volunteer inquiries, they will suggest a garden or committee best suited to that volunteer’s needs and skills. Training will be offered for each aspect of the position, which is voluntary.

Please contact us at FoodBankGrowers@gmail.com (subject line Volunteer Job)

Tasks: (which may be split between two people)

- Managing the FBG inbox

- Responding to inquiries for volunteers, information, available resources

- Forwarding emails to the appropriate person when needed

-Gathering information for the newsletter

- Send once a month

- Seek out / keep track of opportunities that should be in there

- Post on the website

- Social Media Posts

- Instagram, Facebook as needed

- Website

- Help maintain the website through adding new material and keeping info up-to-date

- Green Maps

- Keep Green Map info up-to-date

- Edit as needed when gardens change, upgrade photos as needed

A Trellis for Jo

Sun, 29 Dec 2024 02:59:32 GMT

Jo Yount is honored for her years of work at the Grange Garden.

What an amazing day it was. Brent Bellamy from the Community Boat Project and his crew of ten hard workers arrived at the Quimper Grange Food Bank Garden loaded down with a beautiful handmade arbor and gorgeous bench, complete with a hand-forged plaque honoring Jo Yount, founding mother of the garden. Five QG Garden volunteers joined them to achieve this beautiful installation.

In addition to designing, planning and building the arbor and bench, the CBP students hand-carved beautiful flowers and sunny images to decorate this arbor, the wood all scrap pieces from their supplies. The wood on the very substantial bench contains end pieces also used to make improvements on the schooner Adventuress.

This is not the first project that this crew has built for Food Bank Growers' gardens. The Boat School Garden (just uphill from the CBP shop) was gifted a lovely wash station that they built. Blessings Garden (Umatilla St) also received a wash station built to order. And Fairwinds Garden received a much-needed storage shed.

The Community Boat Project "equips teens and young adults with the critical skills needed for personal and professional success. We unanimously affirm with two thumbs up that they have brilliantly achieved this with their creations.

Gleaners honored by PT School Board

Sun, 01 Dec 2024 01:44:40 GMT

12 years and thousands of pounds of fruit

Seth Rolland and supportive gleans were honored this month at the Port Townsend School Board meeting. Seth started the group in 2010 ish when the gleaners first picked backyard fruit and delivered part of it to Blue Huron Middle School. Today the fruit goes directly into the kitchen (4200 pounds of it) and the Blue Heron Students pick fruit to eat from the orchard on the school property.

The orchard now produces over 2000 predictable pounds a year and teaches volunteers and students how to prune, thin, pick, and graft trees.

Garden Work Hour Times

Sat, 30 Nov 2024 17:24:13 GMT

Weather changes everything...

While we dress for the weather and dig in... sometimes the garden manager will call it due to rain/snow/sleet/or dead of night. When in doubt, contact your garden manager.

Blessings -

275 Umatilla

Tuesday and Friday. 1:00-3-00

Blue Heron Orchard - Notices sent out on quarterly tasks to the gleaners to prune, thin, pick, and mat the trees.

Boat School - on hold

Brian’s -

● Mondays at 3pm - Harvest for Brinnon

○ duration: 1-2 hours depending on the season, what is growing in the garden and how many people show up

○ this coming season I am going to also have a list of cultivation tasks for people to do if there is not enough harvesting work or they want to put some more time in the garden

Wednesdays at 8am - Harvest for Port Townsend

duration: 1-1.5 hours
delivery must be to PT Food Bank before 9:30am
this is a supplemental harvest since our main focus is Brinnon

Thursdays 9-10am rolling start time - Cultivation

○ duration: we like people to commit being there for 2 hours, but we will take any help we can

○ I create an email for the work party with all tasks to be completed and send it out to volunteers the day before the work party; this list is also printed off for the work party and volunteers can choose what tasks they want to work on/complete

Co -op - On hold

Dundee Hill - No volunteers needed

Fair Winds - Thursday 9 - Noon General garden work
Harvest - Wed. and Sat. mornings except when too dark then Tu. and Fri. afternoons.

Goosefoot - Mondays 9 - 12

PT High School - Friday 9 - 11

Quimper Grange - Tuesday & Friday 1:00-3:00 Winter, 1:00-4:00 summer

Salish Coast School - Tuesdays 10-12

Swan - Tue. beginner 8:15 to 9:30 - 12

Willam/Pratt - on hold

May Our Lives be full of Thanks and Giving

Sun, 24 Nov 2024 02:28:34 GMT

It all starts with sharing a table.

November 2024 Newsletter

Sat, 02 Nov 2024 16:16:04 GMT

Kale on!

NEW update 11-3-24

2024 Year-to-Date Harvest, Volunteer Hours, and Starts

19809.34 - Pounds of fresh veggies from the Growers

8041 - Pounds of fruit from the Gleaners

6152.25 - Volunteer hours

1128 - Starter plants (grow your own)

For a complete breakdown of the harvest go here .

Upcoming Event

Food for Thought - Regenerative Communities - Care for the Earth, Care for the People, Care for the Future — Tues. Nov 12, 2024 at Quimper Grange (click here for more info).

This presentation helps us to understand permaculture ethics and how they can guide us to build healthier communities and ecosystems. Let's get back to our roots by reconnecting and tending our relationships with ourselves, each other and the planet.

Presented by Bear (They/Them) Queer Disabled Regenerative Business Owner, dedicated to decolonizing and healing ecosystems we call home. Bear's Magic involves art, community healing, tending to the dead and the living. Currently attending a 2 year PINA Program called Earth Activist Training to receive their Advanced Permaculture Design certificate and Regenerative Land Management Diploma.

They own Earth Benders, a mindful land stewardship business for regenerative landscaping and agriculture management. Need help designing or maintaining land projects? Email Bear at bearthefarmer@gmail.co m

NEW Postings on FoodBankGrowers.org

Food and Harvest Report

Food for Thought - Regenerative Communities

Volunteer Party Recap

Inside Brian’s Garden - October 3 , October 10 , October 24 , October 31 ,

November in the Garden

November is the month our “Winter storms” begin. Yes, it is still Fall but we get most of our rainfall, averaging around 2.9”, in November. We have also gotten several big wind storms and sometimes a little snow. This year NOAA is predicting we will get average temperatures, highs of 49° and lows of 42° F. Most of the forecasts I have read are calling for above average rainfall. So we need to batten down our row covers and make sure our gardens are well drained so we don’t have too much standing water.

There is still time to get stuff done in our gardens even now. Beyond the above mentioned battening down and draining. We can still plant, cover crops, mulch and harvest. Here are some things we can still do.

Planting

Perennials - Now is the time to plant bare root berry bushes and trees. This gives them time to settle in before spring. Add a little mulch to keep their roots warm.
Cover crops such as fava, winter wheat, rye, field peas can still go into any space you don’t have covered by other crops. Remember, any soil left unplanted or covered may wash away in a heavy rain, which November is famous for.
You can still plant radishes and you can transplant spinach out under cover.
Garlic - If you have not done so yet there is still time to get your garlic in and cover it with a couple inches of mulch and/or compost.

Garden work

Drain and/or pull irrigation. I like to pull my soaker hose and store them out of the weather during the winter months. Most drip irrigation needs to be at least drained to reduce freeze damage.
Clean and coat tools. If you have time and energy, cleaning and coating your tools with a bit of oil or WD 40 helps keep them in good condition longer. It will also make Spring much easier.
Mulch - again I say Mulch. This is really key to keeping our overwintering plants alive and healthy.

Harvesting

Winter squash should mostly be in by now but there may be a few hanging on if we haven’t had a frost yet. The outer shell should be hard enough that you can’t pierce it with a fingernail. Remember to cure them warm and store them cool.
Brussel sprouts, now is when these really start to shine. After the first frost sweetens them up. Sunchokes also need a bit of frost to sweeten them up. I wait until the tops die back to harvest these prolific gems.
For those who are winter gardening, the list can be very long with all the wonderful winter green and brassica still producing. With a greenhouse, hoop house or even a good cold frame the growing season can be extended quite a while.
Root crops can still be harvested as long as the ground is unfrozen. (Hint: mulch, Mulch, MULCH!)

I am noticing a theme in most of my writing these days. Mulch seems to creep into every topic, but it is so important. Whether we are sheet mulching to prepare new beds or pathways. Or mulching to reduce weeds and maintain moisture in Spring and Summer. Or mulching to keep plants warmer and reduce risk of frost damage. It all helps build up the soil and increase organic matter, which in turn creates habitat for soil organisms and fungus. All a part of growing healthy soil. Whether you mulch with straw or leaves or wood chops or compost it all has long term effects on our soil’s health and the health of our produce.

So at the risk of being repetitive - MULCH!

Happy Gardening

Dianna Wiklund ��

FBG Garden Coordinator

Volunteers Always Needed to help us Grow or Glean. Write us what interests you. We have desk jobs, too!

VOLUNTEER HERE

2024 Harvest and Distribution Report

Fri, 01 Nov 2024 02:42:47 GMT

Where did the Pounds Go? Do the Math...

NEW update 11-3-24

19809.34 pounds grown at FBG Gardens

65% was delivered to the 5 food banks (Pt, Tri-Area, Quilcene, Brinnon, and Coyle)
29% was grown on the school property and delivered to school cafeterias
5% was delivered to other organizations (e.g. Recovery Cafe)
1% was taken home by the volunteers who grew the produce

8041 pounds of fruit harvested by the Gleaners.

over 50 organizations and events are recipients of the fruit.

plus...

6152.25 Volunteer Hours

1128 Plant Starts handed out

--------------------------------------

Last year Noreen Andrews who keeps the stats on all our crops partnered with Howard Bobry to solve the distribution problem. As they say, "you can't manage what you don't measure"... so they collected the numbers and measured how much produce was going to each Food Bank. What they learned in 2023 was shocking. Without knowing it, many of our gardens were delivering to the same Food Bank. (See charts below.)

This year (2024) with stats and formulas in hand, the production stats were fed into the machine and then Noreen was able to determine how to make the distribution more equitable between the five Food Banks. With facts in hand, suggestions were made to Garden Managers and where they should take their summer harvest.

Below is the 2023 pie chart showing Tri-Area getting the more food followed by the 2024 pie chart where the food was more evenly distributed based on numbers of patrons coming to each location.

Small changes, but what a difference in the results.

Thank you Noreen (and Howard) and everyone who paid attention this year to try and make our produce stretch further. Now everyone gets a piece of the harvest pie.

Inside Brian's Garden

Wed, 30 Oct 2024 18:55:18 GMT

October 31, 2024

Dear BG Team -

Tomorrow is forecasted to be partly cloudy with temps in the upper 40s / low 50s. We’ll start the work party at 10 am.

The Garden

We are planning on continuing Thursday’s work parties through November. In early-to-mid November we will organize a compost work party where we will tackle our 3-bin compost system, getting it ready for next year.

Next Spring 2025, we will plan to have a garden kick-off party where we will talk about the plans and planting structure for the next season.

Harvest Report … Last Scheduled Harvest Party for the 2024 Season

Monday 10/28 evening harvest for the Brinnon Food Bank was supported by Dianne and her granddaughter June, Lindsay, Jordan, Lys and Amber. They harvested the last of the kohlrabi, radishes and salad mix (lettuce and radicchio). They sent pole beans and zucchini that was harvested on Thursday. They harvested parsley, onions, tomatoes, winter squashes and stir fry mix bundles. The sent the last of the garlic harvest. All of this totaled 41.75 pounds of produce.

Beautiful fall colors of orange and green. And there are definitely a lot of slugs in the garden right now.

Lindsay, thank you for the fabulous garden photos and making delicious pumpkin cookies for the last harvest party of the year!

We were also fortunate to have some produce to send that was gleaned from Red Dog Farm for a community meal… apples, beets, carrots, collards, parsley, mizuna, bell peppers, butternut squashes, mustard greens, tomatoes and stir fry mix… for a total of 62.25 pounds.

104 pounds of produce went to the Brinnon Food Bank on Tuesday!

Thanks to October 24th Work Party Volunteers!

Mehdi continued weeding behind the chicken coop, adding cardboard and hog fuel to sheet mulch the entire area . Dianne removed the zucchini plants from Bed 9 and the tomatillo plants from the grow bags. Denny removed the rest of the bean plants from Bed 2. Amber took down the tomato house posts, covered empty grow bags with straw, and planted some fava beans.

Tasks for October 24th Work Party

Groundskeeping:

continue weeding and adding chicken-wire to outside north-fence line and sheet mulch along fence afterwards
weed in between double fence-line (east side of garden)
weed aisles and add additional hog fuel to sparse aisles
continue weeding behind the chicken coop, add cardboard and hog fuel to sheet mulch the entire area
add straw to empty grow bags to cover soil
fold plastic that is in chicken coop for storage
build toilet enclosure

Plant maintenance: (HIGH PRIORITY)

remove any plants that are no longer producing
stake PSB plants in Bed 8S

Planting: (HIGH PRIORITY)

Fava Beans
prepare Bed 9 for planting (remove all plant material and amend soil with compost)
treat with legume inoculant before planting
plant spacing = 3 inches in rows with rows at least 12 inches apart
Cover Crop
Bed 3N (east side of row)
Bed 3S (west side of row)
Bed 7S (center of row)

We hope you can join us in the garden to maintain this wonderful food hub!

- Amber, Lys and Denny
Co-managers at Brian's Food Bank Garden

Wasn't That a Party?!?

Wed, 30 Oct 2024 05:46:54 GMT

Thank you Volunteers for a Harvest-filled 2024

The volunteer party Friday night was lots of fun. With music by the Grange Garden Aires and the hit song “Born to Bundle.” A wonderful slide show showing off our amazingly prolific gardens and volunteers. A Gift table with fun and silly gifts for everyone. A beautiful cake, provided by Denny, two different kinds of Chili's by Lys, and many supportive side dishes and desserts by all. It was a night of joyous laughter and true appreciation for all our wonderful volunteers. Yes, that means everyone there.

Submitted by Dianna Wiklund ��FBG Garden Coordinator

Regenerative Communities

Wed, 30 Oct 2024 03:09:11 GMT

This Food for Thought presentation helps us to understand permaculture ethics and how they can guide us to build healthier communities and ecosystems. Let's get back to our roots by reconnecting and tending our relationships with ourselves, each other and the planet.

Bear (they/them) is a Queer Disabled Regenerative Business Owner, dedicated to decolonizing and healing ecosystems we call home. Bear's Magic involves art, community healing, tending to the dead and the living. Currently attending a two year PINA Program called Earth Activist Training to receive their Advanced Permaculture Design certificate and Regenerative Land Management Diploma.

They own Earth Benders , a mindful land stewardship business for regenerative landscaping and agriculture management. Need help designing or maintaining land projects? E-mail Bear at bearthefarmer@gmail.com .

Tuesday, Nov. 12th, 6:30-7:30 pm

Doors open at 6:15 pm

All Are Welcome

The Grange has ADA access and an outstanding Merv-13 air filtration system.

Quimper Grange is located at 1219 Corona Ave.,

Port Townsend, WA 98368.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Food For Thought, a free series offered by Quimper Grange #720, will examine "all things food" in our area. For over 100 years, the Quimper Grange has supported the Jefferson County community through public programming, concerts, dance, rental space, and a 7,000 SF all-volunteer Food Bank Growers garden. Quimper Grange is located at 1219 Corona Ave, Port Townsend, WA 98368.

Granges (derived from ‘grain’ or ‘granja’ [farm]) were grassroots organizations that sprung up across the US in the 1860's to build strength and community among rural farmers. For over 100 years, the Quimper Grange has supported the Jefferson County community through public programming, concerts, dance, rental space, and a 7,000 sq. ft. all-volunteer Food Bank Growers garden, donating over 2,000 lbs. of fresh produce annually to food banks and other entities around our area.

Did you know? The Quimper Grange’s first songbook was “Grange Melodies” published in 1891. It celebrated growing with songs like “The Farmer Feeds Us All” and “Cultivator” and “The Hand That Holds the Bread.”

October 2024 Newsletter

Tue, 29 Oct 2024 02:55:45 GMT

Squash for the cure...

Each One / Teach One

Our volunteer Gleaner group is dedicated, but not getting any younger. Now is the time to teach the next group of Gleaners how and where to pick from over 300 trees that we watch and keep this valuable resource of local and perpetual food available to organizations in need and to the Gleaners who pick. We have the ladders, access, spread sheets, proven methods… Contact PTGleaning@gmail.com com to get on the weekly opportunity list.

GROWERS: We need help harvesting our growing bounty or preparing the garden space for July plantings ASAP. Please send your name/phone/email to FoodBankGrowers@gmail.com. Please let us know that you are volunteering. We’ll find the right garden fit for your time and skills.

GLEANERS: Do you want to be on the Gleaner Opportunity list and be notified when we start collecting fruit from backyard orchards to redistribute? Please send your name/phone/email to PTgleaning@gmail.com .

NEW Postings on FoodBankGrowers.org

Inside Brian’s Garden - 9/4, 9/12, 9/18 , 9/26 , (Follow along on the weekly chores)

FairWinds New Tool Shed

Farm Tour Recap of Salish and FairWinds gardens

What’s the Difference — Regenerative/Biodynamic/Permaculture/Food Forest

October in the Garden

It looks like October will be slightly damper than usual but with average temperatures. Highs around 56° and lows around 45°F and an average rainfall of 2.2 inches. Basically overcast and damp with occasional sunshine or rain to break things up. This is perfect weather to collect slugs in. By gathering slugs now then there will be few to overwinter and emerge to pester our gardens next Spring. Removing their nests of eggs is a really big help. They can be found under boards or in dense clumps of grass, cool damp places. Slugs can be put in containers in the trash or fed to ducks.

Planting:

Garlic is the big crop this month. It is time to divide out the cloves and get them in the ground. I have seen some signs for seed garlic still available here on the Quimper peninsula. If your garlic from last year still looks healthy you can take a chance and replant part of last summer's harvest (note replanting is always a risk). After planting, 4” to 6” apart and 2” deep, cover the beds with a good mulch. Leaves, straw, well aged manure all work well to keep the cold from freezing the new plants.
Cover crops: There is still time to get your cover crops in and established before it becomes too dark and cold to grow anything. It is very important to keep the soil covered either in crops or in mulch so it doesn’t wash away in the Winter rains. Nitrogen is especially susceptible to washing away without the support of roots to hold it in place. Phosphorus is also at risk and a hazard down stream.
Remember to include your cover crops in your crop rotation plan.
Broad beans and snow peas, radishes and turnips, spinach, shallots and multiplier onions all can still be planted for harvest next spring.

Garden work

It is time to deploy season extenders for those plants we hope to survive until spring. Don’t keep them covered all the time just when the temperature drops below 40° F. The plants still need good air circulation to prevent molds from setting in. Season extenders can be anything from an old sheet draped over plants to keep the frost off to cold frames, individual cloches and floating row covers. Anything that keeps the plants from freezing.
Again mulch, mulch, mulch. All of the mulches mentioned above for garlic can be used on other crops as well as wood chips in various forms, cardboard( over bare soil or where you want to kill off what is under it), and grass clippings.
A Master Gardener shared with me a technique for getting slugs out of tight places. They use tweezers to pull slugs from brussel sprouts and in between cabbage leaves. It is working for me.
It is also time to divide perennial plants and transplant berry bushes. More older gardeners are focusing on perennials as less work. This is a good time to get those new perennial beds going.

Harvesting

Winter Squash needs to come in and be hardened off. Check your winter squash for hardness (should resist a fingernail scratch) and bring inside to cure in a warm place for 5 - 7 days at 80 to 85° F. (Greenhouses work for this.) Then store 50° to 55° F but not below 50° or they will deteriorate quickly above 55° F they will get stringy.
Many of our fall plantings are now ready; lettuce and spinach, broccoli and cabbages, the last of the tomatoes and the first of the brussel sprouts all bring joy to the dinner table.
Apples and pears are also filling up our cellars. Cider pressing continues as more apples ripen. Remember that apples and pears need to be stored below 45° F, for longest term storage between 30 and 35° F at 90% humidity.
Bouquets of fall flowers or leaves add beauty to our homes and lives.

Take some time in the last of the Fall sunshine to celebrate your garden with a glass of fresh pressed cider and a bowl of hearty vegetable soup. Life is good.

Happy Gardening

Dianna Wiklund ��

FBG Garden Coordinator

Inside Brian's Garden

Sat, 26 Oct 2024 20:21:12 GMT

October 24, 2024

Thanks to October 17th Work Party Volunteers!

Denny took down the north row of beans and planted two rows of tulips in Bed 5N. Lys and Amber tied up Aaron’s tomato plants in the greenhouse to make room to hang our tomatoes to ripen. Denny, Lys and Amber moved all of Brian’s Garden tomatoes to the greenhouse and did some work to winterize the garden.

Tasks for October 24th Work Party

Groundskeeping:

continue weeding and adding chicken-wire to outside north-fence line and sheet mulch along fence afterwards
weed in between double fence-line (east side of garden)
weed aisles and add additional hog fuel to sparse aisles
continue weeding behind the chicken coop, add cardboard and hog fuel to sheet mulch the entire area
add straw to empty grow bags to cover soil
(HIGH PRIORITY) take down tomato house posts

Plant maintenance:

water plants in grow bags
(HIGH PRIORITY) remove any plants that are no longer producing
beans —> seed bed with Cover Crop
tomatillos (in grow bags) —> cover soil with straw
zucchini —> plant Fava Beans in this bed (Bed 9)

Planting: (HIGH PRIORITY)

Fava Beans
prepare Bed 9 for planting (remove all plant material and amend soil with compost)
treat with legume inoculant before planting
plant spacing = 3 inches in rows with rows at least 12 inches apart
Cover Crop
Bed 3N (east side of row)
Bed 3S (west side of row)
Bed 7S (center of row)

We hope you can join us in the garden to maintain this wonderful food hub!

- Amber, Lys and Denny
Co-managers at Brian's Food Bank Garden

P.S. Volunteer Appreciation Dinner Event Reminder: THIS FRIDAY 10/25 from 6:00-8:00 PM

We (Food Bank Growers volunteers) have been invited to an appreciation dinner by the Garden Committee and the FBG Board. They would like to thank us for making this year so productive. Come and share your garden stories and have a wonderful evening!

Please let them know if you are able to attend. Each volunteer may also bring a plus one: RSVP - FBG Volunteer Appreciation Chili Dinner!

Inside Brian's Garden

Sun, 13 Oct 2024 12:26:53 GMT

October 10, 2024

Dear BG Team -

Tomorrow is forecasted to be partly sunny with temps in the 50s. We’ll have a rolling start to the work party between 9 and 10 am installing the October Garden (top left).

(Above) Fun news… Denny picked up a check from the Jefferson County Fair. We made $10 from our fair entries! It's not often that we earn money from the quality of our veg!

This Week’s Harvests

Monday 10/7 evening harvest for the Brinnon Food Bank was supported by Diane, Mark, Lindsay, Jordan, and Amber . They harvested 66.5 pounds of produce! Onions, apples and squashes made up the bulk of our harvest along with beans, beets, chard, cucumbers, garlic, parsley, herb bundles, kale, radishes, tomatoes and a beautiful fall salad mix!

Wednesday 10/9 morning harvest for the Port Townsend Food Bank was supported by Lys, Diane and Amber. They harvested 43 pounds of produce!

Thanks to October 3rd Work Party Volunteers!

It was a small, yet mighty, team… Mark, Lys, Denny and Amber!

They prepped and planted the garlic bed! Music and Transylvania varieties from Great Northern Garlic. A mystery variety from Territorial Seeds. Some of the bulbs we saved from this years Brian’s Garden harvest. And we have room for a couple more rows if anyone has extra garlic they want to bring to the garden to plant… Mark, perhaps try an organic store-bought variety?

They also took down the cucumbers that were no longer producing and tucked the trellises away for the winter. More radishes were planted and perennial flowers were transplanted. And there is always weeding to be done!

And Aaron, the property owner, helped us move some fence panels over to where we will build the toilet enclosure. We are grateful to be able to reuse material from the property for this project. Aaron also said he will help us dig footings with his tractor!

After harvest on Monday, Mark stayed to prep some beds so they will be ready for cover crop seed tomorrow.

Tasks for October 10th Work Party

Planting:

Mache (HIGH PRIORITY)
seed in beds (north ends of Beds 4S and 5S)
Cover Crops (HIGH PRIORITY)
inoculate any legume seed with inoculant before planting and plant seeds very densely to cover all areas of the soil
seed in south ends of Beds 4N and 5N
seed in south ends of Beds 4S and 5S
Fava Beans
treat with legume innoculant before planting
prepare beds for planting (remove all plant material and amend soil with compost)
north ends of Beds 4N and 5N (after cucumbers are removed)
entire Bed 9 (after zucchini is removed)
plant spacing = 3 inches in rows with rows at least 12 inches apart
Spring Flowering Bulbs ??
if anyone has any of the following bulbs to share, please let us know and we can add them to the garden for spring blooming bulbs!
examples: Lily, Daffodil, Iris, Trillium, Grape Hyacinth, Tulips

**Here is a great little video about inoculation and why it is important: What Is Innoculant? And Why To Use It For Garden Legumes? .

Groundskeeping:

continue weeding and adding chicken-wire to outside north-fence line and sheet mulch along fence afterwards
weed in between double fence-line (east side of garden)
weed aisles and add additional hog fuel to sparse aisles
continue weeding behind the chicken coop, add cardboard and hog fuel to sheet mulch the entire area
(HIGH PRIORITY) determine where we will be placing the privacy fence for the toilet enclosure

Plant maintenance: (HIGH PRIORITY)

water plants in grow bags
remove any plants that are no longer producing
cucumbers
beans?

Preparing for Fall and Winter

We just planted and will plant a few more crops that will be great for fall and winter harvest: spinach, collards, kohlrabi, arugula, radishes, Asian greens/bok choi and lettuces.

Purple sprouting broccoli is planted in Bed 8S and will overwinter here. Watercress will also be left to overwinter.

We will keep existing plants like kale and chard in the ground as long as we can still harvest from these plants.

Other beds will slowly stop producing and we will remove those plants. We will then plant cover crops in these beds. We will seed cover crop mix blends, as well as seed some mache and fava beans as cover crops, too.

After the cucurbits in Beds 4S, 5S and 6S and the tomatoes in Bed 7S have been removed, we will begin our compost bin project. This will entail us removing the material from all three bins and initiating the three-bin process.

We hope you can join us in the garden to maintain this wonderful food hub!

- Amber, Lys and Denny
Co-managers at Brian's Food Bank Garden

Volunteer Appreciation Chili Dinner

Tue, 08 Oct 2024 21:00:30 GMT

Friday, October 25.

WHAT: To Celebrate Another Great Year of Giving

WHERE: Quimper Grange 1219 Corona St., Port Townsend

WHEN: 6:00 to 8:00pm, Friday October 25th

(Set up people please arrive at 5:00, October 25th)

WHO: Food Bank Growers and Gleaner Volunteers

RSVP your attendance to Dianna FBGGardenCoordinator@gmail.co m

Main course provided

Black bean butternut squash chili

Buffalo chili

Invitees are welcome to bring sides and desserts (not required).

Drinks provided -- teas, coffee, and water

Come and share your stories!

Inside Brian's Garden

Sat, 05 Oct 2024 01:29:54 GMT

October 3, 2024

Dear BG Team -

Tomorrow is forecast to be cloudy with temps in the 50s. We’ll have a rolling start to the work party between 9 and 10 am.

Fun news… Denny picked up a check from the Jefferson County Fair. We made $10 from our fair entries! It's not often that we earn money from the quality of our veg!

This Week’s Harvests

Monday 9/30 evening harvest for the Brinnon Food Bank was supported by Diane, Beth, Lys, Lindsay, Jordan, and Amber . They harvested 137.5 pounds of produce! And the first of our pumpkins were ready! Aaron also let us harvest some apples which we brought to Brinnon… 27.5 pounds of apples and 5.5 pounds of pears! And Lys brought the corn she has been growing for us at our house… 37 pounds of corn!

We were also able to send produce that was gleaned from Red Dog Farms for a monthly community meal at the Chimacum Grange. After the meal on Sunday 9/29, Ambe r picked up the produce and stored it in the walk-in fridge to add on to our Brinnon delivery. Beets, carrots, dill, parsley, kale, arugula, leeks, salad mix and corn totaled 134.5 pounds!

So we sent a total of 272 pounds of produce to Brinnon this week!

Wednesday 10/2 morning harvest for the Port Townsend Food Bank was supported by Lys, Diane, Karl and Amber. They harvested 29.75 pounds . The extra help really made a difference!

Thanks to September 26th Work Party Volunteers!

It was a small, yet mighty, team… Lys, Mark and Mike!

They removed squash plants that have died and are no longer producing fruit, erected a house over our pumpkins to protect them from cold weather, and weeded Bed 7N in preparation for planting garlic.

TOMORROW: Planting Party - Thursday, October 3rd

Garlic (HIGH PRIORITY)
prepare bed 7N for planting
amend soil
blend compost, Farmyard Blend and NutriRich 4-3-2 in a wheelbarrow
top bed with kelp fertilizer (1# per 100 sqft)
two varieties to be planted: hardneck (Music) and softneck (Transylvania)
plant spacing = 4-6 inches apart in all directions (the more space given, the larger the heads will grow)
after planting, mulch with straw
Radishes (HIGH PRIORITY)
seed in empty grow bags along north fence-line - use Park Seed, Beauty Blend
plant spacing = 1-2 inches in all directions
planting depth = 1/2”
Mache (HIGH PRIORITY)
prepare beds for planting (remove all plant material and amend soil with compost)
north ends of Beds 4S and 5S (after scallop squash and yellow crooknecks are removed)
Lettuces
direct seed and/or plant in flats
**Beds 3S and 9S were recently planted with lettuce starts**
Fava Beans
treat with legume inoculant before planting
prepare beds for planting (remove all plant material and amend soil with compost)
north ends of Beds 4N and 5N (after cucumbers are removed)
entire Bed 9 (after zucchini is removed)
plant spacing = 3 inches in rows with rows at least 12 inches apart
Cover Crops
inoculate any legume seed with inoculant before planting
prepare beds for planting
east side of Bed 3N (after mizuna is removed)
west side of Bed 2S (after lettuce is removed)
south ends of Beds 4N and 5N (after delicata squash are removed)
south ends of Beds 4S and 5S (after cucumbers are removed) - be sure to leave watercress
plant very densely to cover all areas of the soil
we will tarp Beds 6S and 7S after plants are done producing
(this will allow us to use this space for our compost pile rehabilitation project)
Spring Flowering Bulbs ??
if anyone has any of the following bulbs to share, please let us know and we can add them to the garden for spring blooming bulbs!
Lily
Daffodil
Iris
Trillium
Grape Hyacinth
Tulips

**planting tips and recommendations from “Vegetable by Vegetable: A Guide for Gardening Near the Salish Sea” by Marko Colby & Hanako Myers

Here is a great little video about inoculation and why it is important: What Is Inoculant? And Why To Use It For Garden Legumes? .

Additional Tasks for October 3rd Work Party

Groundskeeping:

continue weeding and adding chicken-wire to outside north-fence line and sheet mulch along fence afterwards
weed in between double fence-line (east side of garden)
weed aisles and add additional hog fuel to sparse aisles
continue weeding behind the chicken coop, add cardboard and hog fuel to sheet mulch the entire area

Plant maintenance: (HIGH PRIORITY)

water plants in grow bags
remove any plants that are no longer producing
delicata squashes
fix top of tomato house (reattach plastic roof)
cover pumpkin plants with remay instead of plastic

We hope you can join us in the garden to maintain this wonderful food hub!

- Amber, Lys and Denny
Co-managers at Brian's Food Bank Garden

P.S. Beth passed along a link to a Ruth Reichl documentary about the US broken food system and the pioneers aiming to fix it: Food and Country . It will be airing live on Tuesday, October 8th from 5:00 - 6:45 pm. It's not necessary to be an AARP member to register and watch… and it's free!

Food For Thought

Wed, 02 Oct 2024 19:02:42 GMT

Food For Thought , a free monthly series offered by the Quimper Grange #720, will examine "all things food" in our area. Granges (derived from “grain” or “granja” [farm]) were grassroots organizations that sprung up across the United States in the 1860s to build strength and community among rural farmers. For over 100 years, the Quimper Grange has supported the Jefferson County community through public programming, concerts, dance, rental space, and a 7,000 SF all-volunteer garden which annually donates an average of 2,500 pounds to area Food Banks and meal-providing entities around our County.

Doors open at 6:15 pm. Admission is free, and all are welcome - the Grange has ADA access and an outstanding Merv-13 air filtration system. Future presentations will occur on the 2nd Tues of each month at 6:30.

What's the Difference?

Wed, 02 Oct 2024 18:20:13 GMT

Regenerative, Biodynamic, Permaculture, and Food Forests

Oct. 1, 2024

Above left: Regenerative practices written by Bear and presentation by Milly.

I have been recently asked what the difference is between Regenerative agriculture, Biodynamic Agriculture , Permaculture and Food Forests so I did a little research. This is not comprehensive or in depth. All these topics are much more nuanced and can take pages or books to describe and understand. This is just a very brief look at them.

What they have in common is they are all ways to improve the soil health in order to grow more and healthier produce. They all talk about harmony, balance and restoring a more natural ecosystem to the soil and everything around and on it including humans.

What the difference is in how they go about it and their focus.

Regenerative agricultur e focuses on no till, cover crops, crop rotation, compost and manures adding as little synthetic fertilizers and other chemicals as possible. It incorporates animals as well as plants in a healthy balance to restore the soil.

Biodynamic agriculture views the farm as a living organism and ecosystem. It incorporates regenerative techniques with a focus on keeping things local both in and out of the garden. Planting by the astrological calendar. It treats the farm/garden as a whole, with each part nurturing the others.

Permaculture is based on the idea that natural ecosystems can be used as a model for human land use. It focuses on patterns and closed loop systems. Mimics natural system.

Food forests focus on mimicking the natural layering of natural woods. They identify 7 layers and plant something in all or most of them, from the root zone to the over canopy. This system uses the plants and their decomposing leaves as soil amendments.

In conclusion I see more similarities than differences in these styles of garden/farming. I think they all work and it is up to us to decide which suits our life situation and growing space best. Please do your own research into the one that most interests you.

Submitted by Dianna Wiklund, Garden Coordinator

Inside Brian's Garden

Wed, 25 Sep 2024 17:33:22 GMT

September 26, 2024

Thanks to September 19th Work Party Volunteers!

Lys finished pruning grapes and removed affected branches, leaves and fruit. Amber removed remaining pea plants, added a drying line under the canopy where we can hang towels to dry, moved some grow bags to inside east fence-line and planted with arugula, seeded beets in Bed 6N. Karl weeded along the north fence-line. Mike prepped Bed 2N and planted collards and kohlrabi and transplanted onions in Beds 6N and 8N. Kathy transplanted Asian greens/bok choi in Bed 9S and lettuces in Bed 3S.

Karl also made us some more low hoops we can use in the garden! They will be fantastic for next spring when we put our starts in the ground or when we need to have a place to store flats of seedlings. Thanks, Karl!

Tasks for September 26th Work Party

Planting Preparation:

Garlic Bed
prepare Bed 7N for planting garlic next week
remove all plant material
amend soil with compost
add 3 wheelbarrows full and rake into existing soil

Groundskeeping:

continue weeding and adding chicken-wire to outside north-fence line and sheet mulch along fence afterwards
weed in between double fence-line (east side of garden)
weed aisles and add additional hog fuel to sparse aisles
continue weeding behind the chicken coop, add cardboard and hog fuel to sheet mulch the entire area

Plant maintenance:

remove squash plants that have died and are no longer producing fruit (yellow crookneck and scallop squash plants in Beds 4S and 5S)
water plants in grow bags

NEXT WEEK: Planting Party - Thursday, October 3rd

Garlic
two varieties to be planted: hardneck (Music) and softneck (Transylvania)
plant spacing = 4-6 inches apart in all directions (the more space given, the larger the heads will grow)
after planting, mulch with straw
Radishes
seed in empty grow bags along north fence-line
plant spacing = 1-2 inches in all directions
planting depth = 1/2"
Fava Beans
treat with legume innoculant before planting
prepare beds for planting (remove all plant material and amend soil with compost)
north ends of Beds 4N and 5N (after cucumbers are removed)
entire Bed 9 (after zucchini is removed)
plant spacing = 3 inches in rows with rows at least 12 inches apart
Cover Crops
inoculate any legume seed with inoculant before planting
prepare beds for planting
east side of Bed 3N (after mizuna is removed)
west side of Bed 2S (after lettuce is removed)
south ends of Beds 4N and 5N (after delicata squash are removed)
south ends of Beds 4S and 5S (after cucumbers are removed) - be sure to leave watercress
plant very densely to cover all areas of the soil
we will tarp Beds 6S and 7S after plants are done producing
(this will allow us to use this space for our compost pile rehabilitation project)
Mache
prepare beds for planting (remove all plant material and amend soil with compost)
north ends of Beds 4S and 5S (after scallop squash and yellow crooknecks are removed)
Spring Flowering Bulbs ??
if anyone has any of the following bulbs to share, please let us know and we can add them to the garden for spring blooming bulbs!
Lily
Daffodil
Iris
Trillium
Grape Hyacinth
Tulips

**planting tips and recommendations from “Vegetable by Vegetable: A Guide for Gardening Near the Salish Sea” by Marko Colby & Hanako Myers

We hope you can join us in the garden to maintain this wonderful food hub!
- Amber, Lys and Denny
Co-managers at Brian's Food Bank Garden

P.S. An updated garden map can be found on the inside of the shed door.

Sproutin' Off

Sat, 21 Sep 2024 14:22:10 GMT

September 18, 2024

(Above left) Grow Veg garden map of Brian's Fall Garden.

Dear BG Team -

Tomorrow is forecasted to be cloudy with temps in the 60s. We’ll have a rolling start to the work party between 9 and 10 am.

This Week’s Harvests … 116.5 pounds!

Monday 9/16 evening harvest for the Brinnon Food Bank was supported by Mehdi, Kathy S, Karl, Lindsay, Jordan, and Amber . They harvested 71 pounds of produce!

Wednesday 9/18 morning harvest for the Port Townsend Food Bank was supported by Diane, Karl, Lys and Amber . They harvested 45.5 pounds. The extra help really made a difference!

Thanks to September 12th Work Party Volunteers!

Mike prepared beds and planted spinach seeds in Bed 1N and 1S. Amber moved grow bags to the north fence-line for planting, transplanted cilantro starts into grow bags, staked PSB and removed calendula plants that were affected by powdery mildew and ran a load of yard waste to the dump. Mehdi continued weeding and working behind the chicken coop. Lys continued pruning grapes, weeded the tomato house and weeded the pathways of field bindweed. Kathy maintained the tomatoes (removing suckers and tying up as necessary) and tended to the squash and cucumbers. Denny brought the worms back to the worm bin in the garden and ran a load of yard waste to the dump.

Tasks for September 19th Work Party

Planting:

direct seed: beets (Bed 6N), kohlrabi (Bed 2N), arugula (grow bags), radishes (grow bags)
transplant: kohlrabi (Bed 2N), onions (Bed 6N and 8N), collards (Bed 2N), Asian greens/bok choi (Bed 9S), lettuces (Bed 3S)

Planting Schedule for Fall and Winter Harvests:
September 26
direct seed: fava beans, cover crop, mache
plant: garlic (Bed 7N)

Groundskeeping:

continue weeding and adding chicken-wire to outside north-fence line and sheet mulch along fence afterwards
would be fantastic to finish the north side before we start on the toilet enclosure
weed aisles and add additional hog fuel to sparse aisles
continue weeding behind the chicken coop, add cardboard and hog fuel to sheet mulch the entire area
move more grow bags (filled with soil and straw) to inside north fence-line for planting arugula
add a drying line under the canopy (up out of the way) where we can hang towels to dry

Plant maintenance:

finish pruning grapes, removing affected branches, leaves and fruit
remove remaining peas
encourage vining squash to attach to trellises and sprawling squash to stay in their beds

Preparing for Fall and Winter

We just planted and will plant a few more crops that will be great for fall and winter harvest: spinach, collards, kohlrabi, arugula, radishes, Asian greens/bok choi and lettuces.

We will also be planting garlic in the immediate future. We will plant garlic in the entirety of Bed 7N. This crop will be ready for harvest August/September 2025.

Purple sprouting broccoli is planted in Bed 8S and will overwinter here. Watercress will also be left to overwinter.

We will keep existing plants like kale and chard in the ground as long as we can still harvest from these plants.

Soon, other beds will stop producing and we will remove those plants. We will then plant cover crops in these beds. We will seed cover crop mix blends, as well as seed some mache and fava beans as cover crops, too.

Farm Tour Recap / Fairwinds and Salish Coast gardens

Fri, 20 Sep 2024 23:59:50 GMT

Two Days. Two Gardens

9/20/24

(Pictured top left) Garden Manager Neil Howe talks dirt with Garden Manager Barbara Tusting.

Two of our newer gardens gave it their all on the 2024 Farm Tour. The FairWinds garden began only this April and has all 6000 square feet planted. Salish Coast has been in existence for 1.5 years and is closing in on 3000 pounds of food in 2024. Salish also showcased the Farm-to-School operations in all three districts.

If you couldn't make it, here are a couple slide shows of the highlights.

Salish Coast Elementary Gardens captured the most "Oh Wows" of the day.

FairWinds Food Bank Garden gains a NEW Tool Shed

Fri, 20 Sep 2024 23:09:49 GMT

Thank you Community Boat Project!

9-20-24

Does a tool shed get any cuter than this?!? Note those two sky lights (corrugated plastic roofing) that allow us to see what we're doing without needing electricity. Having wood studs and walls means we can create more shelves and racks on the inside for tools and storage. (Plastic tool sheds may be cheaper, but they are far less useful in that regard.) And check out the sea-based motifs to go along with FairWind's Farm's motto of "Fair Winds and Following Seas". The color scheme also coordinates with the current farm buildings for a functional and beautiful addition to the farm.

It will be so nice to have a weather proof structure as we head into winter as soon the FairWind's site will live up to it's other name -- SidewayWinds -- and having a place to duck into out of the rain and wind will be greatly appreciated.

Jon Piskula was the mover and his company is Anywhere Storage helped with the drop off. Students signed their "work" after it was in its final resting spot:
Participating Students:
Mara Christensen
Day Robinson
Felix Skopje
Daniel Lawson
Gabe Hefley
Jessie Taylor
Chris Lott-Melick
Nigel Groenig

Staff:
Lydia Vadopalas
Gillian Kenagy

The Community Boat Project makes these buildings for the cost of materials as they are a way for students to apply their skills while they are learning. Contact them directly if you have questions.

Jon did an amazing job getting it to fit through the gate was a 2 inch clearance on each side challenge.

Milly Lierman (left) and Gayle Petrick (right) are FairWind's Food Bank Garden Manager's providing scale and also showing off the art on the inside of the doors as well as the multi-colored table. Note again how bright it is on the inside thanks to those plastic roof panels -- just saying in case you now have shed envy and want to build your own.

Thanks again to the Community Boat Project and those ( Dianna, Bear, Gayle, Milly, Keith... ) who helped to nudge this into place.

Zucchinni Tater Tots Recipe

Thu, 12 Sep 2024 01:14:18 GMT

When you have an attack of the zukes!

Thank you Brian's Garden for providing a new way to enjoy the bounty of zukes.

Inside Brian's Garden

Thu, 12 Sep 2024 01:11:07 GMT

September 12, 202

Dear BG Team -

Tomorrow is forecasted to be sunny, or partly sunny (depending on who you ask), with temps in the 60s-70s. We’ll have a rolling start to the work party between 9 and 10 am.

This Week’s Harvests … A RECORD!!! … 193.75 pounds!

Monday 9/9 evening harvest for the Brinnon Food Bank was supported by Mark, Beth, Mehdi, Teresa, Kathy S, Karl, Lindsay, Jordan, and Amber. They harvested 151 pounds of produce!

The heavy hitters:

Pole Beans = 15.25 pounds
Cucumbers = 24 pounds
Summer Squashes and Zucchinis = 46 pounds
Onions (many donated from Karl and Kathy’s neighbor) = 22.5 pounds

Wednesday 9/11 morning harvest for the Port Townsend Food Bank was supported by Lys and Amber. They harvested 42.75 pounds.

Mark thought we were close to pulling out a TON OF PRODUCE from the garden this year, and he’s right! Way to go team!

Thanks to September 5th Work Party Volunteers!

Lys maintained and reinforced cucumbers (attaching them to their trellis line) in Beds 4N and 5N. Lys also continued pruning grapes. Amber maintained squash by removing leaves affected by powdery mildew and pruning plants of excessive leaves to allow more air circulation. Amber also fixed the tomato house. Karl worked on the worm bin, retrofitting it by adding more blocks to raise it above the water level. Mehdi continued weeding behind the chicken coop, adding cardboard and hog fuel to sheet mulch the area

Denny removed pea plants that were affected by powdery mildew. Also, Denny found that the coconut coir cups that some pea seedlings were planted in don’t really break down that well, as you can see from the photo.

And we had a visitor to the garden… thank you to Dianna for bringing us some orange rubber bands that we can use for bundling produce after harvesting.

Tasks for September 12th Work Party

Planting:

direct seed: spinach (Bed 1S), beets (Bed 6N & 7N), kohlrabi (Bed 7N), arugula (grow bags)
transplant: cilantro into an empty grow bag (empty bags are covered with straw) - be sure to add compost and some fertilizer when planting

Planting Schedule for Fall and Winter Harvests:
September 19
transplant: onions (Bed 8N), collards (Bed 7N), Asian greens/bok choi (Bed 9S), lettuces (Bed 1N)
September 26
direct seed: fava beans, cover crop, mache

Groundskeeping:

continue weeding and adding chicken-wire to outside north-fence line and sheet mulch along fence afterwards
weed aisles and add additional hog fuel to sparse aisles
continue weeding behind the chicken coop, add cardboard and hog fuel to sheet mulch the entire area
move more grow bags (filled with soil and straw) to inside north fence-line for planting

Plant maintenance:

finish pruning grapes
maintain tomatoes (remove suckers and tie up as necessary)
remove calendula plants that are affected by powdery mildew
encourage vining squash to attach to trellises and sprawling squash to stay in their beds

We hope you can join us in the garden to maintain this wonderful food hub!

- Amber, Lys and Denny
Co-managers at Brian's Food Bank Garden

Inside Brian's Garden

Sat, 07 Sep 2024 14:52:54 GMT

September 4, 2024

Dear BG Team -

Tomorrow is forecasted to be sunny with temps in the 60s-70s. We’ll have a rolling start to the work party between 9 and 10 am.

This Week’s Harvests … 146.75 pounds!

Monday 9/2 evening harvest for the Brinnon Food Bank was supported by Mike, Diane, Lindsay, Lys, Jordan, Karl and Amber. They harvested 87.25 pounds of produce.

Saturday 8/31 harvest for the Port Townsend Food Bank was supported by Denny. They harvested cucumbers, zucchini and lettuce for a total of 7.75 pounds.

Wednesday 9/4 morning harvest for the Port Townsend Food Bank was supported by Diane, Lys and Amber. They harvested 51.75 pounds.

And, thanks to Karl, we have a new addition to our wash/pack station… a produce washing table!

Thanks to August 29th Work Party Volunteers!

Karl weeded and prepped the area where our toilet structure will be. Kathy S worked on grape vine control. Denny cleaned garlic, raked grape leaves and trellised peas . Teresa trellised cucumbers. Lys completed a variety of garden tasks.

Tasks for September 5th Work Party

Planting:

direct seed: carrots (Bed 1S), beets
transplant cilantro into an empty grow bag (empty bags are covered with straw) - be sure to add compost and some fertilizer when planting

Planting Schedule for Fall and Winter Harvests:
September 12
transplant: collards, onions, Asian greens/bok choi, lettuces
direct seed: kohlrabi, spinach, radishes, arugula
September 26
direct seed: fava beans, cover crop, mache

Groundskeeping:

continue weeding and adding chicken-wire to outside north-fence line and sheet mulch along fence afterwards
weed aisles and add additional hog fuel to sparse aisles
continue weeding behind the chicken coop, add cardboard and hog fuel to sheet mulch the entire area

Plant maintenance:

continue pruning grapes
maintain tomatoes (remove suckers and tie up as necessary)
remove pea plants that are affected by powdery mildew
remove calendula plants that are affected by powdery mildew
maintain and reinforce cucumbers (attaching them to their trellis line) in Beds 4N and 5N
maintain squash (encourage vining squash to attach to trellises and sprawling squash to stay in their beds) - remove leaves affected by powdery mildew; prune plants of excessive leaves to allow more air circulation

We hope you can join us in the garden to maintain this wonderful food hub!

- Amber, Lys and Denny
Co-managers at Brian's Food Bank Garden

Newsletter September 2024

Wed, 04 Sep 2024 15:12:15 GMT

Harvest numbers are popping up

In this Issue...

Year-to-Date Harvest Numbers
HARVEST HELP NEEDED ASAP
NEW Postings
What to do in the September Garden
How to Volunteer / Donate (We need Admin Support)

2024 Year-to-Date Harvest, Volunteer Hours, and Starts

Thank you volunteers for your time and garden knowledge, your weekly contributions of fresh, nutritionally dense produce are greatly appreciated by food banks, schools, senior centers, and other organizations.

10576.20 - Pounds of fresh veggies from the Growers

961 - Pounds of fruit from the Gleaners

4542.75 - Volunteer Hours

1128 - Veggie Plant Starts (to grow your own)

Each One / Teach One

GROWERS: We need help harvesting our growing bounty or preparing the garden space for July plantings ASAP. Please send your name/phone/email to FoodBankGrowers@gmail.com. We’ll find the right garden fit for your time and skills.

NEW Postings on FoodBankGrowers.org

Brian’s Garden - August 1 , 9 , 14 , 21 , 28 (Follow along on the weekly chores)

Quimper Grange SUMMERized

August Abundance at Salish - what’s being harvested now

Seattle Times Coverage on the Salish Farm-to-School program

Salish Production/Classroom Garden takes Top Prizes at JC Fair

Adventure Summer Camp at the Boat School

“Food for Thought” - New lecture series at the Grange

September in the Garden

September looks to start off warmer and dry than our average temperatures of 65° F - 50° F but it may cool off later and become damper. We usually get 1.5” of rain this month spread over 9 - 10 days. Two of the seven forecasts I have checked call for some rain the second week of Sept. we shall see if they are right. What this means to our gardens is that we will have to continue or resume watering. Our plants still need about an inch of water per week more for new seedlings with their shallow roots.

Planting:

Now through early October is the time to direct seed overwintering veggies. These possible spring plants need to get started soon so they will stay small to survive until next spring. The basic “how to's" on this is to plant them in good soil but with lower nitrogen levels. They want to have 4 true leaves and be 1-2 inches tall by November. If we have a normal Winter without a lot of deep freezing then they should survive and be early greens in March and April. If we get another hard freeze then we need to cover them with cloches, cold frames or row covers to help them survive. In the late Winter/early Spring add the nitrogen that will boost their growth for the really early harvests we hope for.

Some of these possible overwintering veggies are beets, spinach, swiss chard, carrots, cilantro, radishes, snow peas, lettuce, corn salad, many asian greens, cabbage and kale.
Some people plant their garlic in September. but I tend to wait until October.
Cover crops can still be planted anywhere you are not planting overwinter veggies. Broad beans, field peas, rye, barley, wheat, oats, vetches and other hardy soil builders. These will hold soil in place over winter while building up the nitrogen levels and suppressing weed growth while building tilth. I add daikon radish to help break up heavier soils like our glacial till. If you leave the radish in place, after cutting back the top, it will rot and create deeper channels for roots to work their way into our harder soils.
This is also a good time to plant perennials. Getting in berry bushes and fruit trees now gives them time to establish their roots before winter sets in. Mulch and water them well. This gives them a good start before winters rest and they can start off as soon as the weather warms up in the spring.
Now is also a good time to divide perennials. Separating out raspberry or artichoke plants, once they stop producing. Replanting what you can and sharing the bounty with others.

Garden work:

Slug removal never ends. As the rain returned in August I have been removing slugs and snails daily. After about a week of this I am no longer finding many but I watch the borders of my garden to catch the big ones coming in from the woods. Checking often will help the overwintering veggies survive until spring. You can also create slug gathering places by placing boards at the edges of your garden and look under them often to collect the gathered slugs.
Setting up hoop houses for some of our hardier Winter plants to help them survive.
Mulch, mulch , mulch! Remember that you want to keep your soil covered going into our Fall rains so if you plan to do any major weeding it will need to be replanted in something before the rains return. This can be cover crops, or cardboard and mulch( or sand for pathways) or just mulch for beds. Mulches can be leaves, straw, compost, hog fuel or chips. They can also be old cotton sheets.

Harvesting:

This is a wonderful time of abundance as our harvesting baskets overflow. The last of our berries are coming in. The apple and pear trees are loaded. The garden is full of squash and wonderful greens. Root veggies are ready to be harvested and our cornucopia is filled with wonderful tasty food. Or at least that is my hope for all of you.

Greens planted midsummer are starting to be harvestable for great fall salads mixed with bright carrots and sweet cucumbers.
Broccoli continue to put on their often abundant side shoots. Cauliflower and fall cabbage heads are ready for harvest and brussel sprouts have put on buds waiting for an early frost to sweeten them up.
Best of all it is cider pressing time. There are few things as wonderful as fresh pressed apple cider. If you don’t have your own press, look for a friend, neighbor or community event that does. I know here on the Quimper peninsula we have several such events.
A reminder that pears do not ripen on the tree but should be harvested when the seeds have turned brown or when lifted 90 degrees to the branch they break off. Be careful not to break off the bud branch. If left on the tree they tend to rot from the inside out. Which is very frustrating.
Apple and pears can be stored together but need to be away from other produce as they release ethylene gas which will cause other fruit and veggies to rot. Although the pears will ripen faster around the apples. Both apples and pears should be stored in a cool dark location. Wrapping them individually in newsprint will help them last longer. Bring in a few pears at a time to ripen as needed.

September is one of the busiest months in the garden between harvesting, preserving the harvest and planting fall and overwintering veggies. Remember to take time to just enjoy the beauty of your garden and the Autumn leaves. This is a time of abundance and that should include an abundance of joy and an appreciation of our gardens and the world around us.

Happy Gardening

Dianna Wiklund ��

FBG Garden Coordinator

Newsletter August 2024

Mon, 02 Sep 2024 15:47:13 GMT

Harvest is in its full glory

In this Issue...

HARVEST HELP NEEDED ASAP
Year-to-Date Harvest Numbers
NEW Postings
What to do in the August Garden
How to Volunteer / Donate (We need Admin Support)

PLEASE HELP -

GROWERS: Do you have a couple extra hours a week? We need help harvesting our growing bounty ASAP. Please send your name/phone/email to FoodBankGrowers@gmail.com . We’ll find the right garden fit for your time and skills.

GLEANING SEASON HAS STARTED: Do you want to be on the Gleaner Opportunity list and be notified when we start collecting fruit from backyard orchards to redistribute? Please send your name/phone/email to PTgleaning@gmail.com .

2024 Year-to-Date Harvest, Hours, and Starts

Thank you volunteers for your time and garden knowledge. Your weekly contributions of fresh, nutritionally dense produce are greatly appreciated by food bankers and school kitchens.

5063.20 Pounds of fresh veggies

3,129.25 - Volunteer Hours

963 - Veggie Plant Starts (to grow your own)

NEW Postings on FoodBankGrowers.org

Worm Casting Tea Time

Inside Brian’s Garden / July 10 / July 17 / July 24

FairWinds brings in their first harvest

August in the Garden

While the rest of the country swelters we should continue with normal/average weather here on the Quimper peninsula. The average for the month is between 69° F. and 54° F. Looks like we will start out warmer than average in the low 70’s and with possibly some rainfall towards the end of the month. Also getting any last herbs to dry before the fall humidity makes it tough to dry anything.

Harvesting: August is all about harvesting and preserving our hard work from spring.

Also getting any last herbs to dry before the fall humidity makes it tough to dry anything.
If it becomes too humid for herbs to hang to dry they can be frozen with a little water in ice cube trays.
This is the best time to harvest and dry or cure our Alliums, garlic, shallots and onions. Lay them out on drying trays or hang them in small bunches with good air circulation. Once dry you can braid both soft and hard neck garlic as well as onion to hang for storage and fall decoration. Trim roots and remove dirt after they are dry. They can also be stored in open baskets in cool dry locations. For food bank delivery just cut off the leaves an inch or more up and send them in.
Green beans and summer squash can be harvested every other day. Both need constant attention or they will get away from us. Green beans need to be picked if we want to extend the harvest. Once they set seed, the seeds mature in the pods, they will stop producing more flowers. The same is true of the summer squash. If you let them go to very large size they will stop producing.
Of course tomatoes and cucumbers are in full production. Remember to keep them picked and remove lower leaves to keep the air circulating, this helps avoid possible diseases.
Many potatoes are ready to harvest now. Watch for the when the plants have died back. Stop watering for two weeks before harvesting to allow the skins to toughen up a bit. Rinse to remove most of the dirt and dry them for winter storage in a cool dark location or delivery to the food banks.
Berries and tree fruit are coming on and should continue through fall. Keep berries picked and removes old or damaged ones on the vine/bushes to reduce the spread of molds to the new fruits. Early apples don’t tend to keep well but make great applesauce.

Planting: There is still time to plant a fall garden.

Beets, spinach, swiss chard, carrots, radishes, green bunching onions and lettuce can all be direct seeded for October harvests. Many of these can go in where you have removed garlic, onions, and potatoes.
If you are not planting a fall/winter garden then consider putting in a cover crop to help build up your soil and keep it in place over our winter rainy season. Soil tends to run off if it is not covered or held in place by living plants.

Garden work:

This is a good time to add a bit of compost to heavy feeders like squash and celery. Add an inch deep spread around the roots to about 6 - 8 inches from the base of the plant. Don’t amend root veggies as it can make them very hairy.
Add straw under winter squash to help keep them off the ground and increase air circulation around them.

Harvest season is a time to celebrate all the glorious variety of tasty veggies and fruits from our gardens. It is time to find out if new varieties worked for us or if we should look for a different one next year. Take notes and make plans for next year. But mostly just enjoy the wonderful flavors of home grown food.

Happy Gardening!

Dianna Wiklund ��

FBG Garden Coordinator

Volunteers Always Needed for:

Admin Support:
Writers, Photographers, Office duties — Can you string a story together in a few paragraphs? Each week we like to feature a garden or activity on our website to share with the community-at-large while building a living history of tips and accomplishments.
Garden Support: Go here for the FULL LIS T
Gleaners - COMING LATER THIS SUMMER - Do you want your fruit tree picked this fall or be a volunteer gleaner? Write to PTgleaning@gmail.com .
Delivers - Hours differ by which location the produce is serving.
VOLUNTEER HERE

"Food for Thought" is launching at Quimper Grange

Sun, 01 Sep 2024 15:07:39 GMT

A monthly engagement on local food topics.

Quimper Garden SUMMERized

Sun, 01 Sep 2024 14:40:33 GMT

Aug 30 2024 Harvest

(Shown with fresh picked bounty left to right) Morgana, Paul, Louise, Arlene, and Mar y

Where did August go? Seems like summer just arrived. When we plan what we plant, we shoot for what is the expected weather for the time of year. Now, and in the future, we'll have to look at planting vegetables that could do well with more temperature variables. For a vegetable gardener, and especially for a garden that grows to give to others, that can prove challenging. If we could just have one or two more weeks of heat... If the extremes didn't happen... Lots of 'ifs'.

Our garden is still producing plenty of certain types of produce - others, not so much. Take that "two more weeks of heat" statement above, and we just might get our squashes blasting off. Our basil peaked early, and is not producing just now. "Two more weeks of heat", however ...

Our greens are loving the rain and the cool weather. Spinach, mustard, chard, etc are finally coming on. We are planting lots of radishes, and started flats of lovely Asian greens to make their way into the greenhouses once we're done with cukes & tomatoes. And of course, the ever-producing scallions - a favorite commodity at the food bank.

In preparation to increase winter production, we have planted the five new raised beds resulting from a grant from Port Townsend Noon Rotary. Also in our plan, we have cleared out a ton of soil amendments from one of our hoop houses; now we can put in even more growing containers in the center of the hoop house and fill it with more produce than ever in preparation for the winter. Before that happens, however, we have a lot of gravel to spread to keep from wading through the muck. Anyone have an extra hour or two to help shovel gravel? It's lots of fun.

As always, we need volunteers to help keep the weeds at bay. Weeding and mulching are our go-to jobs when everything else is complete; needless to say, they're usually at the bottom of the list.

Come visit our awesome and inspiring team any Tuesday or Friday afternoon, 1:00-3:00 pm-ish. We can always learn something from each other! Contact Barbara at barbaratusting97@gmail.com .

Inside Brian's Garden

Thu, 29 Aug 2024 01:36:55 GMT

August 28, 2024

Dear BG Team -

Tomorrow is forecasted to be sunny with temps in the 60s-70s. We’ll have a rolling start to the work party between 9 and 10 am.

This Week’s Harvests

Monday 8/26 evening harvest for the Brinnon Food Bank was supported by Teresa, Lindsay, Jordan, Diane, Mark, Beth, Brian, Kathy S, Karl and Amber… a turnout of 10 volunteers made this harvest so successful and we were all done in time for dinner! They harvested beans, beets, carrots, cucumbers, garlic, parsley, basil, leeks, onions, peas, salad mix, summer squashes and stir fry mix for a total of 119.75 pounds. We also had a pass through of 93.5 pounds from food that was gleaned and left-over from Red Dog Farms for a community meal that Amber picked up for our Brinnon delivery. This gave us a total of 213.25 pounds for Brinnon this week!

Thanks to August 22nd Work Party Volunteers!

Diane weeded and transplanted radicchio starts in Bed 6N. Mark weeded and seeded; he seeded Afghan collards, onions, lettuces and Asian greens/bok chois. Mike added straw to top of grow bags with soil in them to keep the soil from drying out. Karl installed ollas in celery bed and created a design for our upcoming toilet area. Mike, Karl, and Mehdi continued weeding behind the chicken coop and began adding cardboard and hog fuel to sheet mulch the entire area. Kathy C weeded, removed aphid infested portions of the nasturtiums and removed dead poppies. Teresa weeded and collected nasturtium seed. Denny prepped garlic and onions for harvest deliveries. Lys and Amber completed a garden variety of tasks around the garden.

Tasks for August 29th Work Party

Planting:

transplant cilantro into an empty grow bag (empty bags are covered with straw) - be sure to add compost and some fertilizer when planting

Irrigation:

finish making sure all irrigation lines are in direct contact with the soil underneath any straw mulch, pin in place
check lines for any leaks or excessive drips and repair where necessary

Groundskeeping:

(HIGH PRIORITY) weed outside the north fence line where we will be installing our toilet structure
continue adding chicken-wire to outside north-fence line and sheet mulch along fence afterwards
weed aisles and add additional hog fuel to sparse aisles
weed vegetable beds
(HIGH PRIORITY) continue weeding behind the chicken coop, add cardboard and hog fuel to sheet mulch the entire area

Plant maintenance: (HIGH PRIORITY)

continue pruning grapes
maintain tomatoes (remove suckers and tie up as necessary)
tie-back peas
maintain cucumbers (attaching them to their trellis line)
maintain squash (encourage vining squash to attach to trellises and sprawling squash to stay in their beds)

Construction:

create a plan to build a harvest “spray” table out of hardware cloth and a wood frame (Karl knows the gist of it)

We hope you can join us in the garden to maintain this wonderful food hub!

- Amber, Lys and Denny
Co-managers at Brian's Food Bank Garden

P.S. Amber won’t be at the work party this week. The clipboard with this week’s tasks along with the volunteer notebook is on the large shelf in the shed.

Inside Brian's Garden

Wed, 21 Aug 2024 22:59:52 GMT

August 21, 2024

Dear BG Team -

Tomorrow is forecasted to be cloudy with temps in the 60s-70s. We’ll have a rolling start to the work party between 9 and 10 am.

This Week’s Harvests … 148.5 pounds!

Monday 8/19 evening harvest for the Brinnon Food Bank was supported by Lindsay, Jordan, Mehdi, Diane, Beth, Brian and Amber. They harvested beans, beets, chard, cucumbers, salad mix, stir fry mix, onions, peas, summer squashes and zucchinis, rhubarb, tomatoes, parsley, basil, herb bundles and garlic for a total of 89.25 pounds.

Wednesday 8/21 morning harvest for the Port Townsend Food Bank was supported by Karl, Mark, Teresa, Diane, Kathy C, Lys and Amber. They harvested beans, chard, cucumbers, kale, peas, summer squashes and zucchinis, salad mix, stir fry mix, parsley, herb bundles and flower garnishes for a total of 59.25 pounds .

Thanks to August 15th Work Party Volunteers!

A small, yet mighty, crew!

Karl moved the remaining soil pile along the inside east fence-line into grow bags, weeded and mulched where the pile was, and set-up the second Earth Machine composter.

Mehdi weeded behind the chicken coop; the beginning of an intensive project.

Mark harvested shallots and onions (from Bed 9S) to dry in chicken coop, maintained tomatoes (tied them up, topped them off and removed suckers), and tackled some ferocious bindweed.

Kathy removed poppy seeds from dried plants, and trellised squash and cucumbers.

Denny cleaned our drying garlic heads so they are ready to be included in each harvest delivery.

Amber filled the newly emptied grow bags with compost and seeded a second round of radishes, transplanted bunching onion starts into Bed 9S and a couple grow bags, transplanted a second round of radicchio starts in Bed 6N, and weeded Brussels sprout bed under insect netting.

Tasks for August 22nd Work Party

Planting: (HIGH PRIORITY)

transplant radicchio starts in Bed 6N (round three)
seed in flats:
Afghan collards (4 4-packs)
onions (1 flat of 4-packs)
lettuces (1 flat of 4-packs)
Asian greens/bok choi (1 flat of 4-packs)
direct seed: carrots (Bed 1S)

Planting Schedule for Fall and Winter Harvests:
August 29
direct seed: beets, radishes
September 5
direct seed: Asian greens/bok choi, lettuces, Swiss chard
transplant: collards, onions
September 12
direct seed: kohlrabi, spinach, radishes, arugula
September 26
direct seed: fava beans

Irrigation:

finish making sure all irrigation lines are in direct contact with the soil underneath any straw mulch, pin in place
check lines for any leaks or excessive drips and repair where necessary

Groundskeeping:

weed aisles and add additional hog fuel to sparse aisles
weed vegetable beds
(HIGH PRIORITY) add straw to top of grow bags with soil in them to keep the soil from drying out
continue weeding behind the chicken coop, add cardboard and hog fuel to sheet mulch the entire area
install ollas in celery bed

Plant maintenance: (HIGH PRIORITY)

remove aphid infested portions of the nasturtiums (leave non-affected plants in place)
remove dead poppies

We hope you can join us in the garden to maintain this wonderful food hub!

- Amber, Lys and Denny
Co-managers at Brian's Food Bank Garden

August Abundance at PT Schools

Wed, 21 Aug 2024 02:06:16 GMT

Farmer Neil Howe, Farmette Bonnie Obremski, and FBG Volunteers make it happen

August 20, 2024

School is almost ready to start and the new freezer and refrigerators are filling up with garden fresh food. New this year - MUSHROOMS. After last week's down pour, the wine cap mushrooms popped up for easy picking. (See below)

Thank you volunteers for giving your minutes, hours, or months of effort. It all helps to distribute the work load and keep the food "banked" for the school.

Thank you Farmer Neil Howe, and Bonnie Obremski for your dedication to keeping on top of the plantings, mid-month feedings, seedings, and harvesting. Without your consistent leadership this garden wouldn't be this productive. For example: those buckets of Fortex beans (top left) is ONE picking. Tomorrow there will be as many to pick again. It's a very prolific variety. The volunteers pictured above are standing in front of them.

Adventure Summer Camp Visits the Boat School Garden

Thu, 15 Aug 2024 19:06:21 GMT

Future Slug-Spotters at Work

AUGUST 15, 2024

We had a great visit from the Adventure Summer Camp on Aug 15. 26 kids between 7 and 12 came to learn about our gardens and what we do and have fun while doing it. Kelly and Belinda (garden volunteers) organized a program which began with a talk about what the Food Bank Growers do ( Dianna ), followed by a walking tour of the garden ( Noreen ) and then Kelly and Belinda led a series of interactive events.

First the kids helped to water and pull weeds. They did a great job and likely delayed our next weeding effort by a couple of weeks. Next up was the ‘non-native trail search’ where the kids looked for man-made objects (e.g. a yellow paper clip, a piece of a plastic straw) placed in the space. The intention of this exercise is to awaken the senses and minds. Once awakened we moved on to photographing something beautiful in the garden. Rather than use modern day cameras, the kids used their fingers to frame an object in the garden (e.g. a flower or a berry) and then asked their partner to witness what they were seeing. The grand finale was a scavenger hunt which even included finding a slug (boo) and a mushroom (yea).

The event was topped off with a snack of sliced cucumbers and lavender mint tea. An all-around fun day in this small garden. The campers left Happy.

Submitted by Noreen Andrews, Boat School co-manager

Seattle Times Features Salish Garden

Thu, 15 Aug 2024 00:53:08 GMT

Banking food for Students at PT School District

August 11, 2024

Photos by Ellen M Banner

Article by Denisa Superville

Link to Article: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/port-towsend-district-uses-produce-from-its-garden-for-school-meals/

Salish Production and Classroom gardens had a big weekend. First, they took the top prizes for the most ribbons at the Jefferson County Fair in both Veggies and Flowers, then on Sunday, the Seattle Times published a very comprehensive article on the Farm to School program at Port Townsend Schools.

Take the time to read this 2 page, 4-color celebration of what our schools are doing to make the next generation more food secure.

Inside Brian's Garden

Thu, 15 Aug 2024 00:52:11 GMT

August 14, 2024 - A Winning Collection

TOP LEFT - Thanks to Denny, we submitted our garlic and onions to the County Fair this year. Here are the results! Ribbons are fun to hang, but so are LOTS of onions curing ABOVE.

Dear BG Team -

Tomorrow is forecasted to be partly sunny with temps in the 60s-70s. We’ll have a rolling start to the work party between 9 and 10 am.

This Week’s Harvests … 162.5 pounds!

Monday 8/12 evening harvest for the Brinnon Food Bank was supported by Lindsay, Lys and Amber. They harvested beans, beets, cucumbers, salad mix, stir fry mix, onions, peas, potatoes, radishes, summer squashes and zucchinis, squash leaves, parsley, basil and garlic for a total of 113.75 pounds.

BELOW: Wednesday 7/31 morning harvest for the Port Townsend Food Bank was supported by Karl, Lys and Amber. They harvested beans, carrots, cucumbers, kale, onions, peas, summer squashes and zucchinis, stir fry mix, parsley, basil, garlic and flower garnishes for a total of 48.75 pounds .

Thanks to August 8th Work Party Volunteers!

Diane weeded and planted chard and radicchio. Mike planted radishes in the grow bags and started on garlic clean-up. Karl added hog fuel around the harvest washing station and weeded the south-east corner of garden along fence-line by rhubarb patch. Mehdi weeded the front entrance to the garden, around the chicken coop and in the garden itself. Lys weeded path weeds and behind the chicken coop. Amber staked tomatillos in grow bags, tied-back peas, maintained tomatoes, cleaned up squash plants, installed ollas in the watercress bed, finished garlic clean-up and took a load of yard waste and trash to the dump. Denny weed whacked at the Fairgrounds to complete our commitment to them for letting us use space for our planting party back in February.

So many jobs well done!

And on Tuesday 8/13, Kathy S took Amber to her neighbor’s house to get us a large supply of BioChar to use in the garden. Another excellent tool in our cultivation box!

Tasks for August 15th Work Party

Planting:

fill newly emptied grow bags with compost and seed radish (round two)
transplant radicchio starts in Bed 6N (round two)
transplant bunching onion starts in Bed 9S
transplant chard starts in Bed 6N

Planting Schedule for Fall and Winter Harvests:
August 15
seed in flats: Afghan collards (4 4-packs)
direct seed: carrots (Bed 1S)
August 22
direct seed: onions, radishes, carrots
August 29
direct seed: beets
transplant: collards
September 5
direct seed: Asian greens/bok choi, lettuces, Swiss chard
September 12
direct seed: kohlrabi, spinach, radishes, arugula
September 26
direct seed: fava beans

Irrigation:

finish making sure all irrigation lines are in direct contact with the soil underneath any straw mulch, pin in place
check lines for any leaks or excessive drips and repair where necessary

Groundskeeping:

weed aisles and add additional hog fuel to sparse aisles
weed vegetable beds
(HIGH PRIORITY) move remaining soil pile along inside east fence-line into buckets or grow bags, weed and mulch where pile was
weed behind the chicken coop, add cardboard and hog fuel to sheet mulch the entire area
install ollas in celery bed

Plant maintenance: (HIGH PRIORITY)

train cucumbers and squashes to use their trellises
weed green beans and tie them up
weed Brussels sprouts under insect netting
harvest shallots (from Bed 9S) to dry in chicken coop
maintain tomatoes (tie-up and remove suckers)
remove poppy seeds from dried plants

Compost:

set-up second Earth Machine composter next to first one (after soil pile has been moved)
(HIGH PRIORITY) get three-bin compost system under control and managed on a regular basis
we will be adding decaying fruit from the orchards within the next month to our system

We hope to see you for some FUN in the garden!

- Amber, Lys and Denny
Co-managers at Brian's Food Bank Garden

P.S. 3-Bin Compost System Resources:

https://ucanr.edu/sites/ucmgnevada/files/118303.PDF

Salish Gardens and PT High School Gardens are JC County Fair Winners

Thu, 15 Aug 2024 00:50:06 GMT

Salish Gardens take the top Exhibitor Ag and Floral Awards

8/14/24 TOP LEFT, Neil Howe and Doug Van Allen show off a few of their many ribbons. ABOVE: Neil Howe holds the Top Exhibitor awards.

Once again all the hard work of growing show stopping veggies and flowers meets a place to show them off -- The Country Fair.

This year Neil submitted 137 entries from the Salish gardens.

72 Agriculture entries — resulted in 60 blue, 12 red ribbons
65 Floral entries -- resulted in 48 blue, 13 red, 4 white ribbons

Doug wasn't able to give his ribbon amounts but his Walla Walla Onions took the "Oh Wow!" award.

Below: Salish also produced a double headed wonder of a sunflower which took a blue for being perfectly weird.

Inside Brian's Garden

Fri, 09 Aug 2024 01:44:49 GMT

August 9, 2023

Tomorrow is forecasted to be sunny with temps in the 60s-70s. We’ll have a rolling start to the work party between 9 and 10 am.

This Week’s Harvests …

Monday 8/5 evening harvest for the Brinnon Food Bank was supported by Diane, Lindsay, Jordan, Lys, Amber and our NEW volunteer, Teresa. They harvested pole beans, beets, carrots, chard, cucumbers, parsley, basil, kale, lettuce, radicchio, onions, peas, potatoes, radishes, scallop squash and zucchini for a total of 125.75 pounds. This is our largest haul out of Brian’s Garden… A RECORD! We also sent a flat of chives in 4-inch pots and 3 in half-gallon pots.

Wednesday 7/31 morning harvest for the Port Townsend Food Bank was supported by Lys and Amber. They harvested cucumbers, onions, peas, zucchini, scallop squash, radicchio, squash leaves and flower garnishes for a total of 38.5 pounds. Here is the material we provided to the Port Townsend Food Bank with our harvest of squash leaves today:

Thanks to August 1st Work Party Volunteers!

Mike cleaned up dead flowers and staked sprawling flowers. Denny and Ayesha re-strung the cucumbers and peas. Karl, Kathy and Lys built another cucumber trellis and strung up more cucumbers. Amber tied up the tomatoes and removed all their suckers.

All hands ( Mike, Denny, Ayesha, Karl, Kathy, Lys, Mehdi and Amber ) on deck for the back fence line project. Thanks everyone for weeding, laying cardboard, and hauling and spreading hog fuel!

Tasks for August 8th Work Party

Planting:

fill empty grow bags with compost and seed radish
transplant radicchio starts in Bed 6N
seed lettuce in flats
transplant onion starts
transplant chard starts
determine what we want to plant for fall and winter harvests

Irrigation:

finish making sure all irrigation lines are in direct contact with the soil underneath any straw mulch, pin in place
check lines for any leaks or excessive drips and repair where necessary

Groundskeeping:

(HIGH PRIORITY) add hog fuel around harvest washing station
weed aisles and add additional hog fuel to sparse aisles
weed south-east corner of garden along fence-line by rhubarb patch
weed vegetable beds

Plant maintenance:

stake tomatillos in grow bags
tie-back peas
weed green beans and tie them up
install ollas in grow bags and celery bed
clean-up squash plants (remove dead leaves and prune for airflow)

We hope to see you for some FUN in the garden!

- Amber, Lys and Denny
Co-managers at Brian's Food Bank Garden

Inside Brian's Garden

Thu, 01 Aug 2024 05:52:14 GMT

August 1, 2024

Dear BG Team -

Can you believe it’s already August?!?!

Tomorrow is forecasted to be sunny with temps in the 60s-70s. We’ll have a rolling start to the work party between 9 and 10 am.

This Week’s Harvests …

Monday 7/29 evening harvest for the Brinnon Food Bank was supported by Diane, Nancy, Mark, Lys and Amber. They harvested pole beans, beets, chard, kale, onions, snow and snap peas, summer squashes, squash blossoms, radicchio and stir fry mix for a total of 57.75 pounds. Also, we received some gleaned food from Red Dog farms that we sent as a pass-through our garden; this consisted of carrots, chard, lettuce, salad mix and stir fry mix for a total of 18.75 pounds. This brought our delivery total for Brinnon to 76.5 pounds .

Thanks to July 25th Work Party Volunteers!

Kathy S mulched all garden beds with straw, covering all exposed soil to help it retain water. Karl weeded the inside north fence line and sheet mulched with hog fuel (a huge project that will still need more bodies on it this week). Magaly finished fertilizing all crops with worm castings and planted mesclun and leeks. Amber staked tomatoes for additional support and planted chard and kale. Mike tied-back peas and pruned grapes. Mark also pruned grapes. It was a wonderful work day in the garden and we got a lot done.

Tasks for August 1st Work Party

Irrigation:

finish making sure all irrigation lines are in direct contact with the soil underneath any straw mulch, pin in place
check lines for any leaks or excessive drips and repair where necessary

Groundskeeping:

(HIGH PRIORITY) build cucumber trellis
(HIGH PRIORITY) continue weeding the inside north fence line and sheet mulch with more hog fuel where necessary
continue attaching rabbit-proof fencing (chicken-wire) to outer perimeter and sheet mulch with hog fuel
weed aisles and add additional hog fuel to sparse aisles
dig horseradish out of aisle between Beds 3 & 4

Plant maintenance: (HIGH PRIORITY)

stake sprawling flowers and secure with twine to prevent them from creeping
finish pruning grapes
continue attaching growing tomatoes to bamboo poles and remove any suckers

We hope to see you for some FUN in the garden!

- Amber, Lys and Denny
Co-managers at Brian's Food Bank Garden

Worm Casting Tea Time

Tue, 30 Jul 2024 20:10:02 GMT

Mummm, Mummm GOOD for plants.

July 17, 2024

One of the axioms of regenerative ag is "feed the soil". A very direct means of accomplishing this is to apply a "tea" made using fresh compost or worm castings.

Using non chlorinated water, fill a 5 gallon bucket and add a soft ball sized clump of compost or worm castings. Stir it vigorously to break up any lumps. Aerate the mixture by continuing to stir, or employ an aquarium pump to oxygenate it overnight. The added oxygen will encourage the growth and reproduction of the beneficial microorganisms that foster soil health and plant growth.

To use your tea, thin the mixture with more water until it is the color of weak tea or straw, approximately 10 parts water to 1 part tea. Apply it directly to the soil around your plants with a watering can, or filter it first to remove large particles, then use a sprayer.

Other useful teas are made with plant materials such as comfrey, nettles, horsetail or seaweed. These will add potent amounts of minerals to your brew.

Compost tea is also used to "activate" biochar. The biochar provides habitat for those organisms you've been growing in your tea.

Happy Gardening!

Submitted by FairWinds Garden co-manager, Gayle Petrick

Inside Brian's Garden

Thu, 25 Jul 2024 00:41:20 GMT

July 24, 2024

Above:
Wednesday 7/17 morning harvest for the Port Townsend Food Bank was supported by Mark, Lys, Amber and her mom, Marcia . They harvested beets, carrots, chard, kale, lettuce heads, snow and snap peas, rhubarb, summer squash, stir fry mix, radicchio and Makah Ozette potatoes for a total of 39.25 pounds .

Dear BG Team -

Tomorrow is forecasted to be sunny with temps in the 60s-70s. We’ll have a rolling start to the work party between 9 and 10 am.

This Week’s Harvests …

Monday 7/15 evening harvest for the Brinnon Food Bank was supported by Kathy C and Bruce, Diane, Beth, Lindsay and Amber. They harvested baby carrots, chard, Wawa Choi (baby napa cabbage), parsley, chives, kale, lettuce heads, salad mix, onions, snow and snap peas, rhubarb and salad mix for a total of 64.5 pounds.

Garlic Fest Recap

Garlic fest happened!!! Hardneck and softneck varieties are starting their drying process.

The "neck" in the names refers to the stalk that grows upward from the garlic bulb.

Hardnecks have a stalk that stems from the center of the bulb and turns rigid at maturity. Hardneck garlic is closest to wild garlic and thrives in cooler temperatures. They have a bolder, spicier flavor, larger, easy-to-peel cloves and the advantage of producing scapes (flower stalks).

Softnecks have leaves rather than a central stalk and these leaves remain soft and flexible at maturity. They have a milder flavor, smaller cloves and a longer storage time. You’ll most likely find this type in grocery stores.

We are going to be setting aside some of our best to use as seed for next season’s planting.

Thanks to July 18th Work Party Volunteers!

Thanks to an overcast morning, we were able to accomplish a lot before the heat set in for the day.

Karl weeded the chicken run and behind the coop, paying extra attention to the thistle. Lys weeded bindweed, tackled some leaf miner and worked on the irrigation tapes . Kathy S planted leeks and kale. Mike planted chard. Amber planted basil and peppers. Magaly fertilized all crops in Beds 1-6 with worm castings. Amber and Denny planted Brussel sprouts and covered the bed with insect cloth.

Thanks to Karl and Denny for building us fantastic supports for our climbing cucurbits!

Tasks for July 25th Work Party
Irrigation:

finish making sure all irrigation lines are in direct contact with the soil underneath any straw mulch, pin in place; add straw to any bare soil
check lines for any leaks or excessive drips and repair where necessary

Groundskeeping:

(HIGH PRIORITY) cover/mulch all visible soil in beds with straw
(HIGH PRIORITY) weed the inside north fence line and sheet mulch with more hog fuel where necessary
continue attaching rabbit-proof fencing (chicken-wire) to outer perimeter and sheet mulch with hog fuel
weed aisles and add additional hog fuel to sparse aisles
dig horseradish out of aisle between Beds 3 & 4

Plant maintenance: (HIGH PRIORITY)

finish fertilizing crops with worm castings (Beds 7-9 and tomatillo grow bags)
stake sprawling flowers and secure with twine to prevent them from creeping
add bamboo stakes to tomatoes and tie up for support
tie-back peas
prune grapes

Planting:

mesclun - Bed 6N
chard - Bed 1S

We hope to see you for some FUN in the garden!

- Amber, Lys and Denny
Co-managers at Brian's Food Bank Garden

Inside Brian's Garden

Thu, 18 Jul 2024 00:26:26 GMT

July 17, 2024

Dear BG Team -

The forecast for tomorrow is sunny with temps in the upper 60’s / low 70’s. If you are interested in helping with the planting, be sure to arrive by 9am tomorrow so we can beat the heat.

But, most importantly, tomorrow is GARLIC FEST! We will be harvesting all of our garlic and prepping it to dry in the chicken coop.

This Week’s Harvests …

Monday 7/15 evening harvest for the Brinnon Food Bank was supported by Beth, Diane, Kathy C and Molly, Lindsay and Amber. They harvested beets, baby carrots with greens, chard, kale, kohlrabi, onions, onion scapes, snap peas, snow peas, radishes, salad mix, stir fry mix, chives and herb bundles for a total of 44.25 pounds.

Thanks to July 11th Work Party Volunteers!

Mike mulched around plants with straw to help keep the moisture in the soil after watering. Denny planted lettuce, kohlrabi and mizuna starts and prepped soil in beds. Mark planted parsley and basil starts and weeded bindweed from the garden. Karl weeded the inside east perimeter of the fence and laid down black weed barrier to inhibit future growth. Amber planted chard, leek and mizuna starts, started getting irrigation lines in direct contact with the soil, pinning them in place and attached the tomatoes to the twine. Karl also built another squash trellis last week which he brought to the garden and set up.

Tasks for July 18th Work Party

Irrigation: (HIGH PRIORITY) finish making sure all irrigation lines are in direct contact with the soil underneath any straw mulch, pin in place; add straw to any bare soil

Groundskeeping:

(HIGH PRIORITY) weed chicken run and behind the coop, paying extra attention to the thistle
(HIGH PRIORITY) cover/mulch all visible soil in beds with straw
finish weeding the inside perimeter of the fence and sheet mulch with more hog fuel where necessary
continue attaching rabbit-proof fencing (chicken-wire) to outer perimeter and sheet mulch with hog fuel
weed aisles and add additional hog fuel to sparse aisles

Plant maintenance:

(HIGH PRIORITY) finish fertilizing crops with worm castings (onions have been completed)
stake sprawling flowers and secure with twine to prevent them from creeping
keep adding support loops to growing tomatoes and twine
tie-back peas

Planting: (HIGH PRIORITY): before planting, make sure to fully saturate the soil with water, using hori to make sure water can penetrate deeply

Brussels sprouts - Bed 8N (amend bed after garlic is removed before planting)
chard - interplant between mature plants
kale, red russian - interplant between mature plants
leeks - Bed 8N

We hope to see you for some FUN in the garden!

- Amber, Lys and Denny
Co-managers at Brian's Food Bank Garden

Inside Brian's Garden - July 10, 2024

Thu, 11 Jul 2024 04:28:19 GMT

Happy Gardeners Grow Happy Food

Dear BG Team -

Tomorrow is forecasted to be sunny with temps in the 60s-70s. We’ll have a rolling start to the work party between 9 and 10 am.

This Week’s Harvests …

Monday 7/8 evening harvest for the Brinnon Food Bank was supported by Beth, Diane, Lys, Jordan and Amber. They harvested beets, broccoli collards, baby carrots with greens, chard, kale, lettuce, onions, snap peas, radishes, stir fry mix and herb bundles for a total of 47.5 pounds.

Wednesday 7/10 morning harvest for the Port Townsend Food Bank was supported by Beth, Diane, Kathy C, Lys and Amber. They harvested beets, baby carrots with greens, kale, onions, snap peas, snow peas, chives and herb bundles for a total of 34.5 pounds.

Thanks to July 5th Work Party Volunteers!
Mike trimmed grapes… they definitely needed some attention. Mehdi mulched between the fences… it looks fantastic . Beth weeded out bindweed in Bed 9N… a tedious job. Mark also worked to eradicate bindweed and hand watered the garden… it was a hot day! Denny finished installing the trellises for the cucurbits… hippy chic! Denny, Lys and Amber finished installing the irrigation… gotta keep those plants happy and watered.

Tasks for July 11th Work Party
Irrigation: (HIGH PRIORITY) make sure all irrigation lines are in direct contact with the soil underneath any straw mulch

Groundskeeping:

(HIGH PRIORITY) weed thistle along north and east fence lines
(HIGH PRIORITY) cover/mulch all visible soil in beds with straw
finish weeding the inside perimeter of the fence and sheet mulch with hog fuel ESPECIALLY EAST SIDE OF GARDEN
continue attaching rabbit-proof fencing (chicken-wire) to outer perimeter and sheet mulch with hog fuel
weed aisles and add additional hog fuel to sparse aisles

Plant maintenance:

(HIGH PRIORITY) finish fertilizing crops with worm castings (onions have been completed)
(HIGH PRIORITY) pull stems from beds where plants were recently harvested
surface watering for cool crops
stake sprawling flowers and secure with twine to prevent them from creeping
keep adding support loops to growing tomatoes and twine
tie-back peas

Planting:

(HIGH PRIORITY): before planting, make sure to fully saturate the soil with water, using hori to make sure water can penetrate deeply

basil - Bed 7S
lettuce - Bed 3S
chard - Bed 1S and 2S
kohlrabi - Bed 2S and 7N
leeks - Bed 1S and 8N
mesclun - Bed 6N
mizuna - Bed 3N and 8S
parsley - Bed 8S
peppers (replace where ones have died) - Beds 4S, 5S and 9N

We hope to see you for some FUN in the garden!

- Amber, Lys and Denny
Co-managers at Brian's Food Bank Garde n

FairWinds Brings in its First Harvest

Thu, 11 Jul 2024 04:14:11 GMT

Pounds of Greens and Beans go to the PT Food Bank

July 10, 2024

Way to get on the boards, FairWinds -- in April you were just an open field and four months later rows of food are being harvested. We're looking forward to seeing how much more will be growing by the Farm Tour on September 14 and 15th.

Newsletter July 2024

Wed, 10 Jul 2024 19:31:40 GMT

It's Starting to get Picky Out There...

In this Issue...

HARVEST HELP NEEDED ASAP
Year-to-Date Harvest Numbers
NEW Postings
What to do in the July Garden
How to Volunteer / Donate (We need Admin Support)

PLEASE HELP -

GROWERS: Do you have a couple extra hours a week? We need help harvesting our growing bounty or preparing the garden space for July plantings ASAP. Please send your name/phone/email to FoodBankGrowers@gmail.com. We’ll find the right garden fit for your time and skills.

2024 Year-to-Date Harvest, Hours, and Starts

Thank you volunteers for your time and garden knowledge. Your weekly contributions of fresh, nutritionally dense produce are greatly appreciated by food bankers and school kitchens.

2621.25 - Pounds of fresh veggies

2795 - Volunteer Hours

909 - Veggie Plant Starts (to grow your own)

NEW Postings on FoodBankGrowers.org

WSDA Pathogen and Pest Study

GreenHouse Ground Breaking

High Season at Salish Coast Garden

Brian’s Garden Weekly Work Parties: June 12 , June 20 , June 26

PT Leader Article - Why Thin Fruit, by Kathy Darrow

Gleaners This Blue Heron Orchard

Grow Where You’re Planted

July in the Garden, by Dianna Wiklund

With the end of June the sun returns and the rain fades away. July is forecast to be average for the Quimper Peninsula. Highs in the low 70’s, lows in the upper 50’s. Very little rainfall unless a thunderstorm moves in. Not good weather for our marginal crops; corn, peppers, tomatoes. But great for starting our winter gardens. The beans and squash should still do well and the greens might take longer to bolt.

Harvesting:

For those with sweet cherry trees don’t be dismayed. Even if the cherries are cracked/split they can still be used to make juice. Cherry juice can be turned into jelly, syrup, or mixed with other juices. Just don’t leave them on the tree as they will rot and contaminate the rest of your crop. The next round should be better as we will have less rain to split the fruit.
Reminder on Garlic you need to cure it before braiding up for storage. Lay it out in a warm, dry location away from direct sum light. About 3 weeks or until all the leaves are dried out. Then you can trim the roots and remove the outer skins before you store them either tied in bunches, braided, or in mesh bags ina cool, dry, dark space.
As the garden harvest continues, July and August are the most abundant months of summer. The early crops are done and it is time to put in our fall crops. The first of the lettuces are done but can be replaced with other crops like beets or carrots.
This is also a good time to designate some plants to not harvest and save seeds from. Tie a ribbon to them so you donæt forget. If you are working with others, label the ribbon or area so everyone knows not to harvest here.

Planting:

As the garlic comes out mid month you can start planting broccoli, cabbage, carrots, green bunching onions, leeks, radishes, scallions, spinach, lettuce, beets and many more for fall/winter harvest.
It is not too late to start beans; both pole and bush can still be direct sown for a late harvest.
I may even try to plant a few snap and snow peas since the summer looks to be cool.
Remember that if you are starting seeds to transplant some plants have an upper temperature limit for germinations. Many brassicas wont germinate if they are over 75 degrees.

Garden work:

Weeding and slug pick should be on the decline this month. It never really stops but is no longer the main focus.
Preparing beds for plantings by adding compost and checking irrigation lines.
Mulching to reduce water loss and reduce weed growth. You can mulch with compost, leaves, straw, weeds without seed or runners, old sheets and cardboard can also be used in pathways.
Tomatoes need to be supported and pitched back to open them up for better circulation. Try to keep the leaves dry. Watering with warm water will help them mature and produce more.

Remember to take time to just sit in the garden and enjoy its abundance. Even if that abundance is just weeds. Weeds produce oxygen too and provide habitat and food for all kinds of critters. Nothing is ever wasted that grows, dies and becomes mulch and compost. The cycle of life is beautiful in all its forms.

Happy Gardening

Dianna Wiklund ��

FBG Garden Coordinator

With or Without Cover Crop Results

Wed, 10 Jul 2024 19:14:43 GMT

The Pictures are Worth 2000 Words...

July 10, 2024

If you ever wondered if planting a cover crop was worth it, here are rows of proof -- YES, it's worth it!

Part of what we do on this website is capture the best practices so that others can learn from the tips and get better at their own gardening techniques.

Last winter the row on the left was planted with cover crop by Salish Garden Manager Neil Howe. The row on the right had a wintering crop already in it, so planting a cover crop in the same space wasn't going to happen. When basil was planted into both this spring, we can now see the side-by-side comparison. Crop covering wins.

There are many different kinds of cover crops as Bear talked about in her session last month at FairWinds. For now, just load it into your mind that it works and come fall, plant your cover crops for a spring chop, drop, turn-in session and then plant. A little extra upfront work doubles the outcome.

The Food Safety Net at Work

Sat, 06 Jul 2024 20:32:01 GMT

105 Pounds of Reciprocal Produce

July 6, 2024

This Saturday, Salish Coast Garden Farmer Neil Howe and volunteer Bonnie Obremski harvested 50 pounds of lettuce, 40 pounds of peas, and 15 pounds of bunching onions for a total of 105 pounds.

Where does it go during summer break?

Currently school is out, which means the kids are not in the cafeteria munching down farm-fresh food. Meanwhile veggies in the production garden can't stop growing... Rather than letting them go to waste or turning them into compost, the veggies go to the PT Food Bank where our community can benefit from crisp and ready to eat produce. The PT high school garden does the same thing, i.e. taking "excess produce" to the food bank during breaks.

Sometimes produce can be blanched and preserved in the school refrigerator/freezer until it's ready to be turned into one of the 720 meals that are served daily to the students of Port Townsend School District. It's only when the food that can't be processed right away that is donated to the PT Food Bank or the Recovery Cafe which is also just up the street.

The give/take is reciprocal.

The school kitchen also receives excess food from the Food Bank. After Wednesday's Food Bank public hours are over, sometimes fresh food that hasn't been taken home by patrons can't hold another three days until Saturday's open hours. To put that food to use (instead of being composted), Shannon Gray, the PTSD Food Director picks up the produce and processes it back at the school. A couple weeks ago she noticed that the Food Bank Volunteers were chopping up veggies by hand. Shannon offered up the Salish school kitchen and its commercial grade chopping tools to make fast work of the veggie pile. Win. Win.

This is how it works in a community which understands how paying it forward , makes our communities stronger and more resilient. Our food safety net is better each time we learn of each other's needs, and then share our fresh food bounty and resources.

If you have extra food growing in your garden, the Food Banks will gladly take the excess and redistribute it to those who need it most.

High Season at Salish Coast Garden

Sun, 30 Jun 2024 04:13:47 GMT

Crops worth the wait

June 29, 2024

Last year the garden had just broken ground and had a grand total of 64 pounds of produce by the end of June. This year the year-to-date total is over 700 pounds with more 35 more pounds coming in from PT high school garden. Next year, when the new greenhouse is in full production, we can expect far more.

The Grange Garden to host WSDA Pathogen and Pest Study

Sun, 30 Jun 2024 03:41:40 GMT

The study will run until September 2024

Quimper Grange Food Bank Garden is one of several farms & gardens in Jefferson County selected to host a pest & pathogen study offered by WSDA. Five traps were set early in the month, and will be checked periodically for pests such as summer fruit Tortrix moth, false codling moth, strawberry blossom weevil, tomato leaf miner, old world boll worm, spotted lanternfly, and tomato fruit borer. Traps will be checked and lures replaced every three weeks. Samples of plants will be collected for possible pathogens in September.

WDSA doesn't expect to find many of these showing up in our area, but the sampling can show a movement of pests moving around the area, and hopefully prepare us in advance.

Attached are some really good pdfs of both pests (3 pages) and pathogens (28 pages) that could be found in our area. It's possible that other gardens would appreciate this information.

Submitted by Barbara Tusting

Photos by Nels Peterson

Brian's Weekly Work

Wed, 26 Jun 2024 22:59:44 GMT

June 26, 2024

Dear BG Team -

Tomorrow is forecasted to be rainy (or partly rainy or misty) with temps in the 60s. We’ll have a rolling start to the work party between 9 and 10 am. Come when you feel it :)

This Week’s Harvests … totaled 99.75 pounds !

Saturday 6/22 morning harvest for the Port Townsend Food Bank was supported by Lys and her daughters Jodi and Juli. They harvested bok choi, broccoli, garlic scapes, kale, kohlrabi leaves, lettuce and salad mix for a total of 26.75 pounds .

Monday 6/24 evening harvest for the Brinnon Food Bank was supported by Beth, Diane, Lindsay and Amber . They harvested bok choi, chard, garlic scapes, herb bundles, kale, kohlrabi bulbs and leaves, lettuce, salad mix and spinach for a total of 51.25 pounds .

Thanks to June 20th Work Party Volunteers!

Lys and Karl continued working on irrigation; trenches dug and lines pulled taut. Amber watered the garden and made a bamboo run for trellis materials. Denny and Kathy built and installed trellis for some cucumbers and squashes. The supports look great! Karl worked on the back gate; nice and sturdy now.

Mike and Diane removed old lettuce stems and transplanted new starts in Beds 1N and 1S. Diane also planted delicata squash and cucumbers in Beds 4N, 5N and 5S. Time to start the next succession. Mark planted a bunch of pollinator plants throughout the garden and weeded along the way; time to bring more beneficial insects in to the garden. Mehdi weeded along the inside west side of the garden fence and laid down more cardboard and hog fuel; looks spiffy!

Mark harvested garlic scapes which we provided to Brinnon.

Tasks for June 27th Work Party

High priority tasks...

Irrigation: Lys and daughters to finish irrigation

Weeding:

special attention to Beds 8S and 9S

Planting:

direct seed 2 more rows of carrots in Bed 5N (on the east side of the bed)
direct seed radishes (easter egg) in Beds 2N and 7N
seed cilantro in 4-packs
transplant 4 pepper plants in Bed 9N and cover 3 of them with cloches

Plant maintenance:
thin beets and carefully transplant them in Bed 7N
stake sprawling flowers and secure with twine to prevent them from creeping

Construction:

Amber and Karl to build two tomato structures in Bed 7S
finish trellis support for cucumbers and squashes in Beds 4N, 5N, 4S and 5S

Groundskeeping:
top cardboard between two fences with hog fuel
pull stems from beds where plants were recently harvested
add worm castings around onions

If there is additional time…

Pest control:

rabbits: continue attaching rabbit-proof fencing (chicken-wire) to outer perimeter and sheet mulch with hog fuel
slugs: create slug traps out of yogurt containers, fill with bait and bury in soil in affected beds

Groundskeeping:

finish weeding the inside perimeter of the fence and sheet mulch with hog fuel
weed aisles and add additional hog fuel to sparse aisles

We hope to see you for some FUN in the garden!

- Amber, Lys and Denny
Co-managers at Brian's Food Bank Garden

P.S. I wanted to share this social media post by local farmer Pierce Kennedy of Soft Step Farm. He has a great message about redefining the way we view “imperfect” produce in our ecosystem:

“If anything, these holes should make you want it more. These leaves are resilient. These leaves are part of an ecosystem. These leaves found their way to a plate because food is about much much more than arbitrary aesthetics. (Flea beetle holes on arugula, for the uninitiated)”

Brian's Garden Weekly Work

Sat, 22 Jun 2024 21:10:04 GMT

June 20, 2024

Wednesday 6/12 morning harvest for the Port Townsend Food Bank was supported by Diane and her friend Mary (visiting from Minnesota), Marta , Lys and Amber . They harvested bok choi, broccoli leaves, chard, kale (both varieties), kohlrabi leaves, lettuce (heads and salad mix) and spinach for a total of 53.5 pounds .

Our garden has been producing. We put out 85.25 more pounds to the food banks this week compared to last!

Garden Status
Most of the garden is planted now! What we have left to get in the ground:

• tomatoes

• peppers

• companion cilantro

• companion basil

• delicata squash

• pie pumpkins

• more chard

• more pollinator flowers

**we have seedlings started for all of these (some are in the hoop house)

Once we harvest the garlic, we will fill that space with Brussels sprouts.
And as some spring and summer plants come to their end, we will fill in with late fall and winter plants

Thanks to June 13th Work Party Volunteers!

Lys continued working on irrigation. Important work getting the system set up in the right order.

Lys watered the garden. Everybody got a good drink of water!

Mike transplanted cucumbers in Beds 4N, 5N, and 4S. They were ready to get in the ground!
Amber transplanted tomatillos in newly prepared grow bags. And she found some baby voles while transplanting.

Kathy and Denny transplanted zucchinis in Bed 9N after finishing turning over the cover crop and weeding out all of the bindweed. A second day of hard work on that bed!

Karl continued to work on the gate in the back fence line. Reusing materials calls for lots of creativity!

Amber flipped the hoop house from Bed 5S to Bed 6S. Bed 5S is ready for cucumbers, delicata and peppers.

Karl weed-whacked around the chicken coop and back side of the garden. Much needed weed control!

Amber vacuumed the chicken coop; now it’s all ready to scrub clean.

Tasks for June 20th Work Part y

Irrigation and watering: (HIGH PRIORITY)

trench main lines, then measure and run sections of drip line down each bed (3 per bed) to get ready for connections
water plants in hoop house - when watering the tomatoes, make sure that water does not touch their leaves

Pest control:

rabbits: continue attaching rabbit-proof fencing (chicken-wire) to outer perimeter and sheet mulch with hog fuel
slugs: create slug traps out of yogurt containers, fill with bait and bury in soil in affected beds

Weeding - beds and aisles:

bindweed needs to be dug out wherever it is popping up
all beds are in need of weeding
carefully weed where we recently seeded, being mindful to not pull up baby seedlings (Bed 5N - carrots, Bed 8S - radishes)
weed aisles and add additional hog fuel to sparse aisles

Planting - direct seeding:

(HIGH PRIORITY) add 2 more rows of carrots in Bed 5N (on the east side of the bed)
(HIGH PRIORITY) plant radishes in Bed 7N

Planting - starts:
(HIGH PRIORITY) plug lettuce seedlings in open spaces (Bed 1N and Bed 9S) - dig out lettuce roots and re-fertilize where we have taken out whole heads
(HIGH PRIORITY) transplant pollinator flowers around garden - refer to garden map, but fill-in/plant where it makes sense (as map may not be up to date with flower locations and varieties)

Plant maintenance:
(HIGH PRIORITY) thin beets and transplant them where there is more space in Bed 6N
transplant some phacelia from Bed 1N to Bed 5S and Bed 6N (if possible)

Construction:

(HIGH PRIORITY) build two tomato structures in Bed 7S
(HIGH PRIORITY) build trellis support for cucumbers in Beds 4N, 5N, 4S and 5S
finish gate in the fence near the bulk compost and soil piles (using the two framed, galvanized panels)

Groundskeeping:
(HIGH PRIORITY) lay cardboard down between two fences atop newly laid chicken wire and top with hog fuel

finish weeding the inside perimeter of the fence and sheet mulch with hog fuel
clean chicken coop - scrub interior

We hope to see you for some FUN in the garden!

- Amber, Lys and Denny
Co-managers at Brian's Food Bank Garden

BELOW: Garden fresh produce arriving at the PT Food Bank

Brian's Garden

Thu, 13 Jun 2024 02:54:38 GMT

Work Party - June 12, 2024

Dear BG Team -

Tomorrow is forecasted to be partly sunny with temps in the lower 60s. We’ll start the work party at 10 am.

This Week’s Harvests …

Our weekly harvest totaled 74 pounds !

Monday 6/10 evening harvest for the Brinnon Food Bank was supported by Mark, Kathy, Karl, Diane, Beth, Marta and Amber. We harvested bok choi raab, broccoli, chard, kale (red russian and dinosaur), heads of lettuce, mizuna, mizuna raab, and salad mix. Again, the majority of our harvest was salad mix… 17.25 pounds of salad mix! We sent a total of 44.25 pounds to the Brinnon Food Bank. Thanks Lys for delivering it all to the meeting point on Tuesday 6/11 morning.

Wednesday 6/5 morning harvest for the Port Townsend Food Bank was supported by Diane, Beth, Lys and Amber. We harvested bok choi, kale, salad mix and many heads of lettuce… 19 pounds of lettuce heads, to be exact. We sent a total of 29.75 pounds of produce to the PT Food Bank.

Our garden has been producing! Here’s some Year-To-Date numbers…

Food Bank YTD Total Pounds

Brinnon 128.00

Port Townsend 48.75

Thanks to June 6th Work Party Volunteers!

Water and feed.

Lys and Denny continued working on the irrigation. Lys watered the garden and got everybody hydrated. Amber watered the plants in the hoop house. Denny fed the garden, paying special attention to the plants who could benefit from worm tea. The garlic got the last dose of nutrients before we harvest them later this summer.

Weed, weed, weed.

Karl finished weed-wacking along the outside fence line. Mike and Kathy weeded some beds. The weeding never ends. Mark and Kathy spent a ton of time and hard work terminating the cover crop and weeding Bed 9N. A huge undertaking!

Don’t forget to seed.
Mike seeded radishes throughout the garden… in the potato grow bags and in Bed 8S. Tiny, little radish seeds.

Transplant those seedlings.
Kathy transplanted the bean seedlings and Amber transplanted some squash seedlings. Diane thinned and transplanted carrots in Bed 1S and Bed 2N.

Shade and protect .
Lys and Amber installed hoops and shade cloth over some delicate beds. Karl hung the gate Beth donated between the shed and chicken coop. Such a lovely addition! He also worked on creating a gate in the fence near the bulk compost and soil piles.

Tasks for June 13th Work Par ty
Choose your own adventure...

Irrigation: (HIGH PRIORITY) run sections of drip line down each bed (3 per bed) and get ready to make connections

Pest control:

rabbits: continue attaching rabbit-proof fencing (chicken-wire) to outer perimeter and sheet mulch with hog fuel

Weeding - beds and aisles:

ONGOING - bindweed needs to be dug out wherever it is popping up
carefully weed next to beds where we directly seeded (as some seedlings are still very small)
weed aisles and add additional hog fuel to sparse aisles

Planting - direct seeding:

add 2 more rows of carrots in Bed 5N

Planting - starts: (HIGH PRIORITY)

cucumber seedlings - plant in Bed 4N, Bed 4S, Bed 5N and Bed 5S and create trellis for climbing support
tomatillo seedlings - prepare more grow bags (mix compost and garden soil with fertilizer amendments) and plant tomatillo seedlings - place near other grow bags
zucchini seedlings - plant in Bed 9N after it has been prepared (finish weeding and turning cover crop, then amend with NutriRich 4-3-2 and blood meal/feather meal mix)
lettuce seedlings

Plant maintenance:

thin beets and transplant them where there is more space in Bed 6N
transplant some phacelia from Bed 1N to Bed 5S and Bed 6N
water plants in hoop house - when watering the tomatoes, make sure that water does not touch their leaves
mound a mix of farmyard blend and garden soil around all alliums - cover the white and red areas to increase the size on the lower plant
onions in Bed 1S, Bed 2S, Bed 6N, Bed 8N and Bed 9S
leeks in Bed 7N

Construction:

finish gate in the fence near the bulk compost and soil piles (using the two framed, galvanized panels)
(HIGH PRIORITY) build two tomato structures in Bed 7S

Bed preparation:

(HIGH PRIORITY) finish terminating cover crop in Bed 9N… it needs to be weeded before being turned over
(HIGH PRIORITY) flip hoop house from Bed 5S to Bed 6S

Groundskeeping:

weed-wack around chicken coop and back side of garden
finish weeding the inside perimeter of the fence and sheet mulch with hog fuel
clean chicken coop - vacuum and scrub interior

We hope to see you for some FUN in the garden !

- Amber, Lys and Denny
Co-managers at Brian's Food Bank Garden

Grow Where You're Planted...

Wed, 12 Jun 2024 17:08:57 GMT

...and Plant what will Grow at Red Hen

June 12, 2024

LEFT - Sharon Bastian gives peas a chance...

It's been a struggle growing a garden where the shade also keeps growing every year... and the cedar roots... but this year Red Hen Garden has found its happy spot with several key crops planted in mass.

Lessons learned

Grow what thrives in 4-5 hours of sun. In Red Hen's case that list includes: lettuce, onions, peas, beans, fennel, potatoes, kale, herbs, rhubarb, asparagus, and flowers.
Voles happen... OVERPLANT! O ne for the row, and one for the vole... all attempts to kill off our furry friends have not worked.
Discontinue using the beds/or pots on the beds where the cedar roots have penetrated. Even lining the beds didn't help as the roots found their way back in and sucked the water out of the bed or pots. We lost the use of five beds due to roots coupled with shade.
Have a slug picking off party in the morning after spring rains. Hand picking off jars of slugs and having dry spells between waterings seem to be keeping slugs at bay.
Plant Chinese Cabbage as slug traps - it's slug candy. While they focus on the one plant, other nearby plants are more or less left alone.

What else worked...

A concentrated effort made planting enough starts easier and more focused. We need 20+ flats each time.
Watering 3 times a week by hand seems to be encouraging plants to grow better roots than they did with the irrigation system.
Three volunteers/three hours a week each is enough to keep this garden humming along.

Newsletter June 2024

Wed, 12 Jun 2024 15:56:51 GMT

Gardens leap into production

2024 Year-to-Date Harvest, Hours, and Starts

1122.9 - Pounds of fresh veggies

1617 - Volunteer Hours

810 - Veggie Plant Starts (to grow your own)

Fresh salads, herbs, along with last year’s plantings of carrots and onions are filling our baskets.

NEW Postings on FoodBankGrowers.org

Plant Sale Report

RHODY PARADE goes Veggie

Thank You Anders and Nancy Edgerton

Measuring Regenerative Results

What Happens at a Work Party?

FairWinds Food Bank Garden Starts to Grow

June in the Garden

June gloom or Junuary are two common names to describe this month. The first week is certainly looking like classic Junuary. We can have temperatures from the mid 40’s to the upper 90’s but our average is between a high of 65° and a low of 51° F. It is looking like our lows will be lower than average and our highs right on average for the next couple of weeks. We are transitioning from El Nino to La Nina over the next two months so our weather could be a bit unpredictable. Plan”t” to adapt.

Winter Gardening:

Yup it is time to start thinking and planting for fall and winter harvests. Overwintering veggies can be harvested in the early spring when they are really appreciated. Doing starts now requires us to pay attention to the upper temperature tolerances for germinations. Many seed catalogs and packages give a range of temperatures. Lettuce likes it cool (under 70°F) so find a shady place to start it. Many Brassicas need to be kept below 75° or they will just decompose. All these plants still need light but natural sunlight should be enough this time of year. Watering is also very important as the warmer temperature and lower humidity starts dry out more quickly.

Look through your garden and see what you will be pulling out next month. Garlic is usually pulled in July so that will open up some space. Many peas slow down their production in July as well. Early lettuce and cool season spinach can also be replaced as we move into warmer temperatures. Remember to add nutrients between plantings like an extra inch or compost and a sprinkling of a good fertilizer.

Planting:

This is also a great time for those who haven’t finished getting their spring garden in to just go ahead and get started on planting. We can still plant all our spring “quick” growing crops. Just look for cooler shady locations like on the north side of the corn or pole beans.
This is also the time to put in our squash and cucumbers.
Now is when our bulb onions will start putting energy into their bulbs. But we can still plant pearl onions and bunching onions.
Many plants can be direct sown right now. If it remains cool you might want to cover your directly sown seeds with cloches or a floating row cover to increase their warmth. It will also help keep insects and birds from damaging your crops.

Garden work:

It is time to start pulling our cloches. When the leaves touch the sides and definitely before they try to escape out the tops remove the cloches from your spring transplants. You can reuse them on your squash transplants or seeds this month.

Mulching now will also help keep some of this spring's moisture in the ground and help reduce the growth of weeds.
Hilling potatoes is a must if you want to keep the light from turning your new potatoes green. This for me is the hardest part of gardening. Moving dirt in to cover the base of my plants. I will shift from dirt to straw and leaves in the second week of June. Which is much easier on my back.
Depending on what happens with the rain fall we will probably need to start seriously watering this month. Most plants want at least an inch a week.

Harvesting:

Salads galore! Tis the season for as many greens as we can eat and with so many possible varieties how could we get bored. It is harvest time for many of our early spring crops. We can revel in the abundance coming our way. Lettuce, spinach, radishes, peas and new carrots and young beets. Rhubarb, strawberries and cherries. Many flowers can add color to our meals and unique flavors as well. These are the rewards worth all our hard work.

Happy Gardening

Dianna Wiklund ��

FBG Garden Coordinator

Volunteers Always Needed for:

Admin Support:
Writers, Photographers, Educators — Can you string a story together in a few paragraphs? Each week we like to feature a garden or activity on our website to share with the community-at-large while building a living history of tips and accomplishments. VOLUNTEER HERE for computer work, writing, office-type duties…
Garden Support: Go here for the FULL LIS T
Growers - - Learn how to grow fresh food for the Food Banks while learning how to grow food for yourself at home. We guarantee that every day you'll learn something new. All gardens will need help -- the more volunteers, the easier and more fun the work becomes. Go to the MAP SECTION of the website and locate a garden near you. Stay at one, or rotate through many gardens, the hours differ by garden.
Harvesters: Each garden will need harvesters to pick and prepare the produce for the Food Bank distribution and/or DELIVER. Hours differ by which location the produce is serving.

VOLUNTEER HERE

The Skinny on Thinning Crews

Wed, 12 Jun 2024 15:35:07 GMT

At the Blue Heron Orchard, where less is more fruit

June10, 2024

Thank you Gleaner Volunteers for making the Blue Heron Orchard more productive by picking off thousands of nickle-sized apples, pears, and Asian pears and leaving only the best to grow into full sized fruit.

Last Sunday about a dozen Gleaners met the annual challenge of taking the weight and "bad apples" off about 60 trees to ensure that the fall crop will be more productive and tasty. It's mindless work allowing for two hours of get-to-know-your-neighbor conversation.

See "the map" of the orchard below. For a full profile of each tree head to the Blue Heron Orchard website or walk the orchard. It's open to the public.

Each June, orchard crew volunteers assemble to lighten the load on the branches by picking off clusters of fruit leaving only the best to grow into student-picking produce. It's part of yearly orchard maintenance that begins in late winter when the trees are pruned back to a picking-without-ladders height, the next month weed smothering mats are added, and then in June Gleaners thin the fruit, check for tree health, and let them grow. By fall about 2500 pounds of fruit can nourish hungry students . Orchard advocate, Doug Van Allen scouts the orchard weekly for which trees have ready-for-eat fruit and notifies the teachers.

Why do this?

If we don't thin, trees will grow lots of tiny fruit or no fruit at all as they recover from being over productive one year. Thinning ensures a productive, fall crop every year. For an extensive information on thinning practices, read Kathy Darrow's article recently featured in the PT Leader.

The short version...

Too many in a cluster -- clusters are thinned to one fruit and the remaining one is about 4-6 inches apart from the next.
Too small of branch -- If one fruit is going to snap off a tiny branch, it gets thinned out.
Too much weight for the established branches - even big branches have their breaking point. Lots of apples at the very end of a older branches also get thinned out.

Want to know more, learn-by-doing, and join the next crew? Write us at PTGleaning@gmail.co m to volunteer.

Thinning Fruit Trees...

Fri, 07 Jun 2024 02:39:54 GMT

For a More Abundant Harvest

Garden Note s
For The Port Townsend Leader: May 8th 2024.

by Katherine Darrow

One of the glorious spectacles of spring in Jefferson County is the flowering fruit trees that grace home gardens and small orchards throughout our towns and rural areas. Cherry, plum, pear, apple, fig, and even a few peach and quince trees share their abundance with us year after year, inspiring many a pie, jugs of cider, jams, jellies and sauce to savor through the winter.

At Blue Heron Middle School in Port Townsend, Quimper Community Harvest, aka PT Gleaners, have planted and cared for a small orchard of 70 trees since 2008, creating an outdoor classroom where students of all ages can learn how to tend and harvest organic fruit. We all look forward to the harvest, but as any orchardist will tell you, there are seasonal chores that need to be done if you want to produce good quality fruit.

Mulching, watering, pruning, weeding, grafting, pest control, and thinning are some of the ways that Gleaners volunteer their time to nurture and care for the orchard, sometimes with the assistance of students from local schools, as well as the school groundskeeper. At the end of the season, students and volunteers are rewarded with the joyful chores of harvest and cider-making parties.

Most plums and pears have finished blooming by this time of year, but many apple trees are still in full bloom through mid-May. Pollination is key to success now, and will also determine how much thinning needs to be done.

To better understand why orchardists thin fruit, it is helpful to understand that the purpose of fleshy fruit for a tree is to attract animals that will eat them, and thus disperse the seeds for a new generation of genetically diverse trees. Lots of smaller fruits means more seeds, and more opportunities for dispersal.

However, seed production and dispersal are not primary aims for humans to grow fruit trees. We cultivate fruit for flavor, texture, and abundance, as well as nutrition. When we thin out the smaller fruits and space them out along the branches, the tree can allocate more resources to each one, making larger, sweeter, juicier fruit. A tree will produce about the same poundage of fruit whether thinned or not. The question is, do you want 120 nice-sized sweet, juicy apples, or 400 small apples that have large seed cavities and not much flesh?

“Another important reason someone should consider fruit thinning is that it will change a tree from the biennial cycle of overproducing one year and nothing the next,” says Seth Rolland, lead orchardist at Blue Heron. “We see this on almost every apple tree we glean, yet it never happens at the school orchard.”

Most trees will naturally abort fruit that is under-pollinated, since it is counterproductive for the tree to allocate sugar and water to fruit with no seeds. “June drop” is a term for trees naturally dropping some of the under-pollinated fruit. This can also occur later in the season, depending on the variety of the apple.

Large commercial orchards that manage hundreds or thousands of trees often use chemical thinners to reduce pollination or promote early fruit drop. This involves spraying the trees while they are still in bloom, or in fruitlet stage, enveloping the tree in a misty cloud of chemicals that often includes pesticides and fungicides. Hand thinning increases time spent in labor, so can be much more expensive for commercial growers. This is one reason organic fruit is pricier at grocery stores.

“We still thin our crop by hand, every single one of our 6000-plus trees. It's a big project but the quality and reliability of hand thinning is more dependable than chemical thinning,” says Shay Hohmann, orchardist with Finnriver Cidery in Chimacum.

Homeowners with single trees and small orchards are better off hand thinning, which also has the benefit of getting to know your trees better. The timing and abundance of flowering for each tree will vary between type, variety, and location. Attention to peak bloom and petal drop are clues to when to attend to thinning, which is best done between 4-6 weeks after peak bloom.

If you look closely at the flowers on an apple tree, you’ll notice that they are in clusters of 5-7 flowers. The central one is the first to bloom, also called the “king blossom.” This is usually the one we keep, as long as it has successfully been pollinated.

“We usually thin in the first two weeks of June when the fruit is around nickel size,” advises Rolland. “We leave the largest and healthiest fruit from each cluster, thinning to one fruit every 4-8” for apples, peaches and pears and a little denser for Asian pears. We don’t thin plums, figs or cherries.”

Thinning can be done with a small pair of garden clippers, or with a simple flick of the thumb and finger, being careful not to break branches. It may seem like you’re taking a lot of your potential harvest at first, but “less is more,” says Tom Pendley, a member of the gleaning team who grew up on a commercial orchard in Arizona. “Dad always said you’ve got to be strict on thinning.”

PT Gleaners welcomes folks who would like to help manage Blue Heron Orchard or join the team during harvest and delivery of fresh, organic, locally grown fruit. Learn more about PT Gleaners and Blue Heron Orchard at https://www.foodbankgrowers.org/gleaning#Gleaning

Katherine Darrow is a Jefferson County Master Gardener and member of the PT Gleaners, working with other volunteers who serve as community educators in gardening and environmental stewardship .

Ground Breaking at Salish Coast Garden

Fri, 07 Jun 2024 02:23:28 GMT

Digging in the new Greenhouse

June 5, 2024

It's been a LONG wait for the planets to get in line to complete the Salish greenhouse -- from the time the grant was awarded until the new greenhouse had a solid foundation of funding (Thank You Rotary). This week everything is coming together and construction on the new state-of-the-art greenhouse is happening. Stop by Discovery Road and Grant and watch the progress.

By August, when the planets fall back out of line, the project will be complete. Drive by and watch the progress.

Brian's Garden Work

Wed, 05 Jun 2024 22:50:19 GMT

May 30, 2024

Tomorrow is forecasted to be partly sunny with temps in the upper 50s. We’ll start the work party at 10 am.

This Week’s Harvests … Our weekly harvest totaled 56 pounds !

Thanks Denny for harvesting chard, kale, lettuce, salad mix and spinach on Saturday 6/1 afternoon for the Port Townsend Food Bank. We sent them a total of 10 pounds!

We had a great Monday 6/3 evening harvest for the Brinnon Food Bank. Jordan, Lys, Lindsay, Karl, Diane, Beth and Amber harvested lots of salad mix (leaf lettuce and mizuna) and a few bundles of spinach, kale, chard, mizuna raab and bok choy raab. The majority of our harvest was salad mix… 20 pounds of salad mix! We sent a total of 25.5 pounds to the Brinnon Food Bank.

We also had a great Wednesday 6/5 morning harvest for the Port Townsend Food Bank, sending broccoli, spinach, watercress, salad mix (lettuce and mizuna) and stir fry mix (bok choy, kale and chard), for a total of 20.5 pounds.

Thanks to May 30th Work Party Volunteer s!

Weeds, seeds and drip lines… oh my!

We really went to town on the weeds.

Mark focused on digging up our pesky bindweed. Diane weeded the celery bed. Karl weed-wacked along the outer perimeter of the fence. Amber weeded between the deer fence and the garden fence.

Keep our garden growing.

Denny seeded carrots in Bed 5N and pumpkins and pole beans in flats. Diane also seeded carrots. Mike seeded sugar snap peas in Bed 1N, snow peas in Bed 1S and beets in Bed 7N. Kerri also seeded beets in Bed 7N.

Kerri added Farmyard Blend around the bok choy and added more soil to to mound up the potatoes in the grow bags.

Prepare for the drier seaso n.

Karl cut long the long sections of drip line in half and got them organized near all the beds.

Manage those garden pests.

Denny dusted diatomaceous earth to combat cutworms in infested beds. Amber concentrated on weeding the perimeter to prepare for adding our chicken-wire rabbit deterrent.

Bunny made a guest appearance while we were all there after they had been spooked out of the weeds.

Tasks for May 30th Work Part y

Another garden variety of tasks this week. Note the high priority items.

Irrigation: (HIGH PRIORITY) run sections of drip line down each bed (3 per bed) and get ready to make connections

Pest control:

cutworms: monitor treatment of diatomaceous earth in Beds 3N, 4N, 7N, 3S and 9S - apply more, if necessary
rabbits: finish weeding the outer perimeter, attach rabbit-proof fencing (chicken-wire) and sheet mulch with hog fuel
(HIGH PRIORITY) slugs: create beer traps with yogurt containers - put in lettuce beds and other beds with slug damage

Weeding - beds and aisles:

bindweed is really popping up and needs to be dug out
finish weeding between deer fence and garden fence
carefully weed next to beds where we directly seeded (as seedlings are still very small)
finish weeding the inside perimeter of the fence and sheet mulch with hog fuel
add additional hog fuel to sparse aisles

Planting - direct seeding:

seed radishes in grow bags on top of potatoes
radishes in Bed 7N

Planting - starts in hoop house: (HIGH PRIORITY)

squash seedlings - plant in Bed 4S and Bed 5S and create low hoops to cover with plastic
bean seedlings - plant in Bed 1N and Bed 1S, then give them a dose of worm tea

Plant maintenance:

thin carrots in Bed 1S, 2N and 5N
thin beets in Bed 6N
transplant some phacelia from Bed 1N to Bed 5S and Bed 6N
water plants in hoop house - when watering the tomatoes, make sure that water does not touch their leaves

Fertilization:

mound farmyard blend around all alliums - cover the white and red areas to increase the size on the lower plant
onions in Bed 1S, Bed 2S, Bed 6N, Bed 8N and Bed 9S
leeks in Bed 7N
garlic in Bed 8N

Construction:

(HIGH PRIORITY) Create low hoops over lettuce and other delicates to run shade cloth in upcoming hot weather
Create a gate in the fence near the bulk compost and soil piles (using the two framed, galvanized panels)
Hang wooden gate, a lovely donation from Beth, between shed and chicken coop (need to determine how to secure and what hardware we need)
Begin planning build for tomato covering

Bed preparation:

prepare more grow bags for tomatillos (mix compost and garden soil with fertilizer amendments)
(HIGH PRIORITY) terminate cover crop in Bed 9N… it may have to be weeded out instead of turned under... the plants are just too BIG!

If anyone has some old beer they would like to donate for our slug traps, please bring it tomorrow :)

We hope to see you for some FUN in the garden!

- Amber, Lys and Denny
Co-managers at Brian's Food Bank Garden

Measuring Regenerative Gardening Results

Fri, 31 May 2024 13:10:34 GMT

Healthy plants start with healthy soil

5-22-24

One of the benefits of working in a Food Bank Garden is having access to in-depth gardening education. Last month's volunteer gathering at FairWinds Winery was focused on regenerative gardening techniques and how to measure the increased sugars/nutrients in the plants we are growing. Bear Belle spoke on the processes that work to create a regenerative or "living" soil, and Noreen Andrews demonstrated how to use a Brix Refractometer to determine the level of sugars in plant leaves indicating its health and nutrient density.

All soil is dirt, but not all dirt is soil.

Dirt is just a substrate, like glass beads in a vase holding up a flower, but it becomes "a living soil" when a community of microbes, insects, and animals along with with air and water work together to bring nutrients to plant roots. Encouraging a thriving community is essence of regenerative gardening that builds a richer and deeper soil community each year.

Bear shared ideas on how to enhance this growth with compost teas, choosing the right cover plants, and creating an active compost where bugs, worms, fungi, and microbes get their start breaking down garden waste.

Later they distributed pages of content we could save to our computers or print out covering:

Plant & Compost Teas
Compost Coloring Page
Cover Crop Guides
Soil Management Guides
Boosting Nutrient Density.

Above: Noreen Andrews holds a Brix Refractometer which works by placing the juice of plant leaves onto the blue slide area and then looking to see the color density on a display inside the instrument. How do you extract leaf juice? Use a garlic press. Brilliant. The more dense the sugars/minerals the higher the Brix number. Noreen found that lettuce was low on the Brix scale and that the darker/greener leaves were higher.

Our thanks to Bear and Noreen for the information, Michelle Cavett of FairWinds for supplying the wine, and to all who brought imaginative dishes made from garden fresh food -- we love our Food Bank Growers!

What Happens at a Work Party?

Thu, 30 May 2024 01:32:47 GMT

If you work at Brian's Garden, it's quite a lot!

5-29-24

If you ever wondered what went into the vegetables that are delivered to the Food Bank, here's an example of how one garden organizes and produces it's donated pounds.

Dear BG Team -

Tomorrow is forecasted to be partly sunny with temps in the upper 50s. We’ll start the work party at 10 am.

This Week’s Harvests

We had a great Monday 5/27 evening harvest for the Brinnon Food Bank. Jordan, Lys, Lindsay, Mark, Beth and Amber harvested lots of salad mix (leaf lettuce and mizuna), kale (red Russian and lacinato), broccoli, chard, 3 bunches of radishes, bunching onions, rhubarb, and herbs… cilantro, parsley and chives. Denny brought us some napa cabbage and mint from her garden to add to our delivery… and Beth brought us some rhubarb from her neighbor’s garden! We sent a total of 26.75 pounds to the Brinnon Food Bank.

We also had a great Wednesday 5/29 morning harvest for the Port Townsend Food Bank. Diane, Mark, Marta, Lys and Amber harvested a lot of salad mix along with some watercress and spinach for a total of 23.0 pounds.

Thanks to May 23rd Work Party Volunteers!

We had a very successful work party!

Lys worked hard on the irrigation system, digging trenches and running the main lines. Each day we are getting closer to a functioning system!

The weeding saga continues.

Mike weeded the northeast corner of the garden along the fence as part of Project Bunny. Kathy S did some intricate weeding amongst the carrots and also tackled Rows 1 and 2. Mark did some intricate weeding amongst the beets and radicchio. Diane weeded 3 beds on the southeast corner of the garden. Mehdi started tackling the west fence line and added some more hog fuel to the outer aisle. And Karl also WEEDED!

There is always something to plant. Mark planted some more bok choy starts in Bed 7N.

Pests are popping up. Denny and Amber created sticky traps for the flea beetles that are attacking our bok choy and mizuna, and also started rabbit-proofing the north side of the fence. Project Bunny will continue...

Tasks for May 30th Work Party

A garden variety of tasks this week.

Irrigation: cut long sections of drip tape in half and start running them down all beds (3 per bed)
Pest control:
cutworms: spread diatomaceous earth around plant stems to combat cutworms in Beds 3N, 4N, 7N, 3S and 9S (use duster applicator found inside bags)
rabbits: finish weeding the outer perimeter, attach rabbit-proof fencing (chicken-wire) and sheet mulch with hog fuel
Weeding - beds and aisles:
bindweed is really popping up and needs to be dug out
weed between deer fence and garden fence, then add hog fuel
carefully weed next to beds where we directly seeded (as seedlings are still very small)
weed celery bed
finish weeding the inside perimeter of the fence and sheet mulch with hog fuel
add additional hog fuel to sparse aisles
Planting - direct seeding:
carrots and carrot tape (Bed 5N)
beets (Bed 7N)
Osborne sugar snap peas (Bed 1N - all along west side of tunnel)
Mammoth snow peas (Bed 1S - all along west side of tunnel)
pole beans (Bed 1N and Bed 1S)
Fertilization:
add Farmyard Blend around bok choy to help with bottom leaves yellowing
Construction:
Create a gate in the fence near the bulk compost and soil piles (using the two framed, galvanized panels)
Hang wooden gate, a lovely donation from Beth, between shed and chicken coop (need to determine how to secure and what hardware we need)
Bed preparation:
prepare more grow bags for tomatillos (mix compost and garden soil with fertilizer amendments)
add more soil to the potato bags to mound up the potatoes, then seed radishes on top

We hope to see you for some FUN in the garden!

- Amber, Lys and Denny

Co-managers at Brian's Food Bank Garden

Tooling UP

Sat, 25 May 2024 13:35:44 GMT

THANK YOU!

May 23, 2024

Thank you Anders and Nancy Edgerton for the huge stash of garden tools. Most have been distributed between eight gardens and the rest stored for large work party use.

We'll have no excuses not to dig in, flip over, pull out, cut off, or identify veggies.

We appreciate you thinking of us.

The Rhody Parade goes Veggie!

Sun, 19 May 2024 16:36:34 GMT

Only good vibrations rained on us...

May 18, 2024

We woke up to rain -- the drizzling, miserable, soak ya to the bone kind. By noon the skies went dry(ish) and Port Townsendites turned out by the thousands to be in the Rhody parade, or on the curb cheering everyone else on. How can you not love this fun community?!?

Once again the FBG crew walked with the Jefferson Community Foundation , wearing our veggie best and giving out seed packets along the way thanks to Barbara Tusting's throwback to "Cigarette Girls" (top left picture) now turned Seed Dispensary. She and Mary Beth Haralovich repackaged bulk seeds into mini packets with our name on them which then she, Bonnie Obremski, Kathy Ryan, and Noreen Andrews took them to the crowds.

Thank you JCF for supporting us, the FBG parade walkers and especially the cheering crowds who appreciate freshly grown food.

FairWinds Garden Starts to Grow

Mon, 13 May 2024 01:51:22 GMT

Structure first, then the plants

April-May 2024

It was a long time coming, and then... in under a month a garden emerged thanks to a dream team of volunteers with skills, time, and pride of ownership. Milly Lierman and Gayle Petrick are co-managing the FBG garden's 60x100 foot space. Next to it, Gayle is also growing his own 100x100 foot garden to sell produce to the public.

Greenhouse

Gayle set up a greenhouse on his area of the property along with a tool crib of material needed to get going. Later the space will add a tool shed and a small hoop house for starting seedlings.

Fence Poles First

Gayle, Ryan, and Mary pounded in 54, 10 foot rebar poles taking advantage of the wet/soft spring ground. It seemed like an overwhelming job, but an orchard ladder, stake pounder and soft ground all helped to finish the job in under 4 hours. The enclosure surrounds both FBG Garden, and Gayle's garden.

Fence

Polly Thurston joined the group to attach over over 500 feet of 7 foot deer fence. We were worried it would become an eyesore, but the fine net disappears -- all drive-byers will see is garden!

Covering the turf with cardboard and 4-way soil

Finding enough cardboard, stripping all the tape off of it, and then putting mulch and soil on top is a tedious process. It takes about 1.5 yards of soil to cover one, 100 foot row. Thankfully Keith Lierman has a trailer to take over the hauling duty when Mary's truck had a tailgate malfunction.

Planting has begun

This year is about getting perennial berries and vegetation established. While the plants are growing out, this summer will also have annual veggies interplanted to bring to the Food Bank. Mado Most, Polly, and Gayle took advantage of leftover plant sale plants and gave them a home.

The FairWinds Food Bank Garden will be on the Farm Tour this year as a complement to the FairWinds Farm which is also on the tour. By September 15, everything will be in place for the public to see and learn about our mission.

Until then, take the photo tour below...

It was the Sale of the Ages

Mon, 06 May 2024 05:45:53 GMT

They came. They coveted. They bought!

May 5, 2024

A Rainy day and several plant sales running on the same weekend didn't deter buyers from coming to the Master Gardener/FBG Plant Sale.

After month's of planting, up-planting, labeling, etc. the biggest plant sale ever brought in the curious and the needy -- I need this, and this, and maybe just two of those... at one point the early bird crowd lined up 3/4 of the way around the room to buy plants.

Congrats to FBG's / MG's Plant Sale Event team , and everyone who made this Fund Raising event so successful.

Newsletter May 2024

Wed, 01 May 2024 20:21:17 GMT

May is the Grow, Gather, and GIVE BACK Month

In this Issue...

Thank You Givers!
Upcoming Events - PLANT SALE May 4th
Year-to-Date Harvest Numbers
What to do in the May Garden
NEW Postings
How to Volunteer / Donate

To all the Givers… thank you for your support!

Our gardens thrive on the love of gardening and by the help of our community such as a recent grant donation by the Noon Rotary Club . FBG is a 501c3 organization separate from the Food Bank Association. While the Food Banks are our primary beneficiary, we also give to the schools, soup kitchens, and many other organizations. Your dollars and volunteer hours support those in immediate need and inspire others to start their own backyard "food bank". We thank you for your generous spirit, whether you purchase veggies at the May 4th plant sale , donate tools, cash, or just send a kind word while walking by a garden; it all helps to keep us inspired, working, and helping to keep our community well fed.

In gratitude,

Mark Paxton, President Food Bank Growers

Upcoming Events

May 4th (this Saturday) PLANT SALE at Chimacum High School 10:00-4:00

This is the biggest Master Gardener/FBG joint sale ever. Fluff up your landscape or plant out your garden with Plant Starts - it’s all there. Funds raised go to support our gardens and gleaners who provide fresh food for our community.

June 3, 2024, 3 pm (Monday) Overwintering Growing Results

Presentation at WSU Extension classroom in Port Hadlock.

Jude Rubin, of Shooting Star Farm will present results from their JCMGF grant. They explored a number of varieties and grew them with varying degrees of cover through the winter to test both what varieties are most productive for overwinter growing and the covering treatment that works best.

2024 Year-to-Date Harvest, Hours, and Starts

Perennial herbs have sprung back up on the harvest board.

748.55 pounds

1107.25 Volunteer Hours

260 Starts

NEW Postings on FoodBankGrowers.org

Thank you Noon Rotary Club

Starts via the Plant Train from Swan School

May 4th Plant Sale

May in the Garden, by Dianna Wiklund

This May the temperatures are likely to start out below our average of 62°/49°. The forecast pattern from last winter is still holding, the first two weeks are forecast to be cooler and wetter and then the forecast is warmer and dry for the second half of the month. We normally get about 1.62 inches of rain in May. We are not forecast to get our usual highs but we will have to wait and see. Weather is getting less predictable every year. NOAA is forecasting a return to La Nina this summer but they are also predicting record breaking high temps. globally. It is a wait and see game. This is when a soil thermometer is especially important. Check your soil temperatures to be sure when to plant and transplant to reduce shock and improve germination.

Garden work

Weeding is the big thing now. Figuring out whether you need to pull a week or just chop and drop is a big challenge.

Here are my basic guidelines:

If it has a tap root like a dandelion or dock, pull it. Remove the roots from the garden but you can use the tops as mulch.
If it sends out runners like buttercup or quackgrass remove as much of the runner/root system as you can. Take it completely out of the garden so it can not restart growing.
If it has thorns or any spikey bits remove it from the garden.
If it is perennial, remove it. I have trouble with Thimbleberry/Salal/Salmonberry in my garden.
All others I tend to just cut down at the base and leave them as mulch. “Chop and Drop”. Leaving the roots systems to decompose in the soil disturbed the mycelium less which will give you a healthier garden.

Transplanting

You can plant out most of your cool season starts now. I tend to cover all my starts with cloches made from used clear plastic bottles. This works great on many levels; it reduces transplant shock, it keeps the birds from pulling them up and reduces slug damage. Floating row covers also help but I find my cats like to lounge on them and squash my plants.

You want night time temps. Mostly overnight temperatures to be in the 50°s F to transplant or direct seed most of your warm season crops. I will be waiting until my soil thermometer tells me the soil temperature is also over 50°F at night before I start putting out Tomates and other warmth loving plants.

Planting

When our soils finally warm you can direct sow or transplant out corn and beans and squash. These warm season crops (especially corn) can be a gamble around here. I often say I am just growing corn for entertainment and to support my bush beans, as it is not alway warm enough to mature. But you will notice I do still plant it because fresh corn is wonderful.

I started my corn in toilet paper tubes in my greenhouse the last week of April in the hopes that it will be warm enough to plant it before the roots reach the bottom of the tube. Corn doesn’t like having its roots messed with so I really try to minimize it. When I do transplant it I will either cover them with a Hoop House or cloches for as long as possible.

Once we start getting temperature in the 70’s during the day then I will put my cherry tomatoes outside. I have given up planting other types outside as my place is just too cool. I do know people in Port Townsend that grow great tomatoes outside. This is very site dependent.

Most other produce can be directly planted now although Basil, Squash and Cucumbers will still benefit from being inside and warm until the temperature really starts to warm up

Harvesting

Finally we can start eating fresh from the garden. Salad greens, flowers and fresh snap peas. Baby beets and maybe some carrot thinnings for those who got started early. Sprouting broccoli if managed right can still be producing. A wonderful and welcome beginning to the harvest to come.

Happy Gardening

Dianna Wiklund ��

FBG Garden Coordinator

"Starts" Plant Train, ends at the Grange

Tue, 30 Apr 2024 01:25:20 GMT

Bringing Food to Grow and Sell

April 26, 2024

Yesterday we were treated to a visit from Swan School students on a field trip with Head of School Emily Gohn. Her students have been working with Dundee Hill Community Garden leader Judy Alexander. They created a "Plant Train'' with carts and wheelbarrows and brought hundreds of beautiful veggie starts "freight" to the Grange garden.

The "freight" they wheeled in is for the combined Master Gardener/Food Bank Growers Plant Sale on Sat, May 4th, 9:00-1:00 at Chimacum School Multi-Purpose Room. The proceeds from this sale will benefit the Grange and the other 14 Food Bank Gardens in the area. Come and support both of these worthy organizations!

Come to the sale and START your own garden.

Submitted by Grange Garden co-manager, Barbara Tusting

PLANT SALE May 4th

Fri, 26 Apr 2024 16:11:48 GMT

Chimacum High School, May 4, Saturday 10-4

We need YOU for a day(s) of what you do so well — selling the joy of gardening and growing your own food.

The biggest Master Gardener & Food Bank Grower Plant Sale is almost here. SIGN UP NOW for where you can help by transporting plants, setting up tables, helping customers park, helping customer’s pick out plants, or taking them with you after 1:00. Go HERE to sign up for one or several fun shifts.

KEY DEADLINES:

August 26 - Send each garden’s inventory by variety (data) into barbaratusting97@gmail.com

May 3, 4:00-6:00 ONLY

Begin delivery of all plants to be sold to Chimacum High School.

May 4 - SALE ON - 9:00 to 1:00

Chimacum HS multipurpose room

91 W. Valley Road, Chimacum

May 4 - After 1:00 take unsold plants back to our gardens

THANK YOU Rotary Club Noon of Port Townsend

Mon, 15 Apr 2024 15:43:55 GMT

A big bouquet of gratitude goes to all the Rotary members

April 2024

The Port Townsend Noon Rotary Club bestowed a $4000 grant to upgrade the Quimper Grange Garden . Garden co-manager, Barbara Tusting submitted the request to help rebuilt the 12 year old gardens, giving them new raised bed edges, fixing the greenhouses, updating the irrigation, mending fences...

The garden team is a machine for getting things done. We're looking forward to seeing the projects as they are completed and will add them to this post.

Our sincere thanks again to everyone who makes our community work.

BELOW: UPDATE June 30, 2024

Three new beds with hats are ready to plant and keep the birds, voles, and too much sun or wind off of the seedings.

photo by Nels Peterson

Salish Coast Farm to School on KING5

Sat, 30 Mar 2024 15:18:54 GMT

New USDA guidelines are served with food fresh from the PTSD gardens

3/27/24

This week the Farm to School program at Salish Elementary was featured on a KING 5 news segment. District Food Manager, Shannon Gray and Production Garden Farmer, Neil Howe were interviewed as part of KING 5's segment on the USDA's new directives for using less sodium, sugar, and fat in schools meals and more veggies and fruit.

The production gardens at the Port Townsend School District are a shared effort of FBG volunteer moxie and school meal driven collaboration. The gardens first started over 20 years ago with a small plot at the high school by teacher Tim Behrenfeld and developed/managed by FBG volunteer Lys Burden (now co-managed by Doug Van Allen and Rachel Dunn ). Seth Rolland instigated the Blue Heron Orchard in 2010 which has 70 flourishing fruit trees. The Salish Coast production garden began last year under Neil's direction. All together in 2023, these gardens produced 6000 pounds of fresh food for the school meals.

On top of the 6000 pounds, the PT Gleaners contribute fresh fruit and apple sauce to the school meal program and the Schools give back produce to the Food Banks when school isn't in session. Students benefit directly from the fresh food and also learn how to give back and support the community in which they live.

Link to Video here.

Goosefoot is Awarded Co-op Grant

Fri, 29 Mar 2024 16:41:30 GMT

Helping to bring more food to our tables

3/28/24 As published in the PTLeader

Thanks to the Co-op and well done! to our local farmers, especially Goosefoot, one of our older and most productive growers for the foodbank, oncology patients at Jefferson, BIPOC families and so much more.

We wish Sam our best with growing Saltwater Seeds https://www.saltwaterseeds.com and our gratitude of starting this dream of growing and giving food away.

Our Goosefoot farmers donate over 12,000# annually to the Foodbanks alone through a number of partnerships. They work several jobs to do this.

Thank you for supporting them through the CoOp!

Submitted by Kathy Ryan

Garden Tool Cleanup Workshop

Sun, 10 Mar 2024 17:21:11 GMT

One stop for brushing, sanding, grinding, sharpening, oiling, conditioning and trading tips.

March 9, 2024

(left) Landscaper Mary Hedberg came to put an edge on some serious looking tools. (Above) the work stations open up to early attendees.

Quimper Grange Food Bank Garden co-manager and clean tool advocate, Barbara Tusting set up the workspace at the Quimper Grange and invited the town of gardeners to bring their hand tools and learn now to get and keep them into shape for the upcoming season in a very short time.

She didn't do it alone, other FBG volunteers chipped in to hold down work stations and conversations. Thank you Doug Groenig, Doug Van Allen, Dianna Wiklund, Noreen Andrews, JJ Johnson, Maikel Carder, Dave Sterritt, Mark Paxton, Emmy Lou Stein, Louise Huntingford, Sheila Long, and "The Marys"... Mary Paxton, Mary Beth Haralovich, and Mary Hunt.

One participant stated, "This was a very empowering experience! Now I can can maintain my own tools instead of asking someone else to do it!"

The event was co-sponsored by the Quimper Grange and Food Bank Growers, both of which have a mission to enrich cultivation practices in our community.

Attendees also learned where they could donate tools they no longer need. The Food Bank Growers are a one-stop-shop for learning new skills while also meeting new gardening buddies. Join us.

WANTED: Supplies

Sun, 10 Mar 2024 14:49:38 GMT

Small donations make a big difference. We take used items or cash to buy new supplies

If you have something you can provide directly to a garden or want to give cash to cover the cost, please see our How to Donate page or contact FoodBankGrowers@gmail.com.

We also serve the Port Townsend school gardens and orchard, if you'd rather help grow food specifically for students.

THANK YOU for helping us grow fresh and nutritionally dense food for our community.

Garden Reorganization

Sun, 03 Mar 2024 21:42:59 GMT

Bring your shovels, buckets, and backs...

Left: Kathy Ryan digs in and helps spring weeds into their afterlife as compost. Inside the fence, Noreen Andrews and Co-Op Garden Manager Ruth Blyther begin cleanup in this small, but productive garden.

March 2, 2024

Saturday was garden pick up day at the Co-Op and at Salish Coast gardens . The Co-Op garden is not only getting a clean face, but a facelift as well changing its layout from a meandering path to straight rows and paths which will be easier to work and water. Later that day, Salish benefited from three hours of shelf reorganization for tools and trays to make way for new seedlings.

The big job of the day at the Co-op Garden was removing 5 inches of gravel from the path and redistributing it outside along the trail. The gravel path was on top of weed cloth and nicely edged years ago, but the weeds still found a way in and became a pain to pick out week after week. The new, straighter walkways will have a layer of cardboard and then mulched.

With the help of volunteers Kathy, Amy, Noreen, Doug, Ruth, and Mary, the two hour job was done in half the time. Thank you all for your help on a rainy/HAILy day.

Next Co-Op Work Party: On March 16th (10-12)

Task: Add new soil mulch the rows.

Contact: Ruth Blyther, roota57@gmail.com to help,

Newsletter March 2024

Sun, 03 Mar 2024 03:50:57 GMT

March in the Garden

It is looking like March will be starting off cool to cold with low temperatures in the upper 20’s to low 30’s. The average temperatures for March are high of 51° and a low of 41°. NOAA is predicting a cool start to March but a warm-dry finish. Precipitation should be slightly above normal early in the month. As we all know the weather is getting harder and harder to predict. Looking at eight different forecasts I believe we will have a cool damp March. Row covers, cloches and any other season extenders we can find will be useful.

Garden Work:

The weather being what it is we can still get started in our gardens. Soil preparation is very important. Turning in or cutting down cover crops can start now. Moving in compost and manures. Adding soil amendments and letting them settle in before we start transplanting. I encourage a low or no til style of gardening that disturbs the soil as little as possible. Building it up by adding to the top an inch or two at a time.

The best thing you can do for/with your garden right now is to be in it. Whether it is 5 minutes or 5 hours. Just being in your garden will help get the season off right. Set up a garden basket with a slug container, garden scissors, gloves, a notebook and pencil. Then take it to your garden every day. Observe what is happening, make notes about what you want to happen, just be there. This is not about major projects but just being and breathing. I weed, harvest, remove slugs, watch birds and worms and plan.

The other thing you can do is “pet” your starts, it helps strengthen the stems and they will survive transplant better. I love watching my starts grow and look forward to transplanting them up and then out into the garden. Starts are a great way to get off to an early start. (Pun intended)

Planting:

If your ground is dry enough or you are using raised beds now is the time to start getting your potatoes in. Remember that the new potatoes will grow off the stem 12 inches up from the mother potato. So plant them about 4 - 6 inches deep but plan to hill them up as they grow. I do the first 6 - 8 inches with dirt then switch to straw or leaves for the rest. Just make sure all your new potatoes are covered so they don’t turn green in the sunlight.
You can also start planting peas now. Last year I covered mine with cloches and it worked great to keep most of the pest away. Birds, several insects and slugs all like to munch on pea starts. I was very pleased and highly recommend it.
Spinach, beets, carrots, lettuce and parsley can also be started now. Again I recommend covering them with floating row cover or cold frame or cloches. I plan to wait until the temperatures are back with lows in the 40’s until I put anything out that isn’t really hardy.
Starting indoors it is time to plant celery, Broccoli, Cauliflower, many herbs and of course on a heat mat you can start Tomatoes and Peppers.

Harvesting: If you were lucky and foresightful enough to keep your winter garden going then there are many delightful greens to harvest now. There could also be sprouting broccoli and overwintering carrots. Early radishes are much appreciated this early in the season.

Start working your garden slowly to avoid over stressed muscle and ease back into weeding and soil prep. A little at a time can get you a long way in the garden. 5 minutes here and there is much better than injuring yourself and being laid up. Remember to find joy in the garden and delight in the produce you grow.

Happy Gardening

Dianna Wiklund ��

FBG Garden Coordinator

2024 Year-to-Date Harvest - 98.35 pounds

Thanks to hardy winter vegetables and hoop houses, four of our gardens have produce to share.

Upcoming Events -

Tool Maintenance Workshop - March 9, 10-1 details on the calendar

De-rust, sharpen and get your tools ready for the season.

Co-Op Garden Work Party - March 16, 10-12 details on the calendar

This Month’s Postings on FoodBankGrowers.org

Volunteer Season Opener

Master Gardeners Pruning Demo

Leaping into Sowing

Grange Garden Continuous Produce Tips

Special Request - Egg Cartons

Birchyville Garden also has ducks and chickens providing eggs for the Food Bank. If you have cartons to recycle, please contact Birch (mbshapiro@mac.com) to drop them off.

Volunteers Needed for:

Garden Co-Managers - - Each garden needs a point person -- someone who can point to what to do next… This year we're partnering new Garden Managers with experienced ones for every step. Between them, Dianna, and the Monthly "to dos", you'll have everything you need to produce baskets full of produce.
Garden Sitters… Do you know your way around a veggie bed and can give a manager a summer break for a week or more? This short term commitment is greatly appreciated.
Growers - - Learn how to grow fresh food for the Food Banks while learning how to grow food for yourself at home. We guarantee that every day you'll learn something new. All gardens will need help -- the more volunteers, the easier and more fun the work becomes. Go to the MAP SECTION of the website and locate a garden near you. Stay at one, or rotate through many. Hours differ by garden.
Harvesters - Each garden will need harvesters to pick and prepare the produce for the Food Bank distribution. Hours differ by garden.
Gleaners - Do you want your fruit tree picked this fall or be a volunteer gleaner? Write to PTgleaning@gmail.com .

VOLUNTEER HERE for computer work, writing, office-type duties…

Snow Crops that keep on Cropping

Fri, 01 Mar 2024 18:44:10 GMT

The Grange Garden Shares Tips on upcoming plantings

Left to right: Volunteers Barbara Tusting, Mary Beth Haralovich, Mary Paxton, and Louise Huntingford with Feb. 27th bounty bound for the Quilcene Food Bank. Included are microgreens, pac choi, bags of salad greens, turnips, turnip greens, and radishes.

Taken from the Grange Newsletter

Our garden team is busy with many tasks this month! Weeding and mulching our paths are unending jobs, but keeping the weeds at bay is so important.

You can plant snap and shelling peas directly into your garden (assemble your trellis first!), but we prefer to start them indoors. We use toilet paper tubes and put 2-3 peas in each one. They like climbing together, so we don't break them apart, we just plant the whole tube. That causes the least root disturbance possible. Then, when they're about 6" inches tall, we plant them outside. The birds don't peck them to pieces that way. One final pea tip - they're likely to be healthier if you coat your seeds with pea inoculant. You can buy it locally or order it online.

You can also get new strawberries snugged into their beds - or clear out the dead leaves in your existing beds. Leave about 18" inches around each plant to provide an uncrowded, airy, and accommodating bed for those luscious beauties!

Our microgreens have been a big hit at the Quilcene Food Bank. We've used everything from egg cartons to sanitized take-out containers to donate nutrient-rich greens into our community.

ALL the produce grown at this garden is donated to food banks and other similar entities to enhance food security in our area. Contact FoodBankGrowers@gmail.com to volunteer at this garden or one near you.

Submitted by Grange Garden co-manager Barbara Tusting with FB edits by Kathy Ryan.

Volunteer Season Opener

Fri, 01 Mar 2024 10:39:17 GMT

Spring training has arrived!

In the gardens and backyards the crowds are chanting -

"Grow and Glean" "Grow and Glean" "Grow and Glean" …

Yep - It's March which means the FBG Gardens and Gleaners we are ready to welcome back the experienced players and novices to the local food production game. If you have an itching to dig in, prune up, or carry on harvests… we need you!

Our volunteers learn new skills while developing new friends over the summer… and of course new recipes for all that food being grown or picked.

Contact Dianna Wiklund at FBGGardenCoordinator@gmail.com or volunteer via the website page and Dianna will follow up.

We need season-long players and pitch hitters for:

GROWING:

Weekly Weeders (2 hours each time)
Weekly Harvesting (2 hour time each time)
Garden Co-Managers - Team up with a current manager and share the rewards.
Garden Helpers - Sometimes a manager needs a break and a garden "sitter" to watch over things until they return.

(The tiny Coop Garden needs a "sitter" for April. Hint. Hint.)

Remote office jobs (flexible)
Remote writers (flexible)
Event Help (as needed twice a year)

GLEANING:

Although it begins in August, you can get your name to be on the Glean Team now. For more info go here.

Leaping into Sowing

Fri, 01 Mar 2024 10:39:05 GMT

Release the seeds!

Sure February 29th was cold and wet, but that didn't stop the rugged members of Brian's garden from kicking off the 2024 garden season with a massive one day "Sow In".

Twelve growers gathered at the Fair Grounds Horticultural building where they could spread out and have plenty of tables to work on under well lit and dry conditions.

Organized by Garden co-managers Lys Burden, Denny Schauer, and Amber Langley , the volunteers traded future hours of weeding around the buildings in exchange for the space.

After 48 cumulative hours, 27 flats of crops and flowers were tucked into their cells and ready to spring into action during our annual collaboration with seeds, soil, and sun.

Master Gardener/Gleaner Pruning Demo

Sun, 11 Feb 2024 16:45:20 GMT

The Dead, Damaged, or Deranged go first (limbs that is, not people...)

Late winter is the best time to reshape the wild limbs in apple and pear trees and get rid of "the Three D's" according to Master Gardener , Gleaner , and PTHS Garden co-manager, Doug VanAllen. The next time to trim back is in the summer to encourage fruit growth.

"That timeline doesn't apply to stone crops," Doug reminded the group, "Cherries, prunes, and peaches should be reshaped after they produced their summer fruit."

About 16 people learned how to recognize and cut "water sprouts", where to make a "heading" cut, what's a branch collar and why should they care at the recent Master Gardener sponsored event. The home orchard owner also benefited by having her large and older trees trimmed up -- pruned up trees make it easier for the PT Gleaners to harvest the apples in the fall which are then donated to the schools and food banks. It's a Win, Win, Win, Win, Win, Win for the community.

Learning while doing classes are a great way to gain skills while meeting interesting people. As a side benefit participants also go home with new ways to cook up or preserve fruit -- recipes are always swapped as participants settle into the work groove.

____________

Get on the PT Gleaners* list to learn about the next orchard management or picking opportunity.

They keep track of over 160 trees in backyard orchards. If you have a plum, peach, fig, pear, Asian pear, or apple tree that could be added to the list for yearly picking, please contact them at ptgleaning@gmail.com.

The PT Gleaners also maintain the Blue Heron Orchard . https://sites.google.com/site/blueheronschoolorchard

and makes Apple Sauce for the schools.

* also known as the Quimper Community Harvest.

Newsletter September 2023

Sun, 04 Feb 2024 21:36:08 GMT

Busy Month

In the Garden this month…
Year-to-Date Harvest Numbers
On the Calendar - Upcoming Events
Recent Postings
How to Volunteer

In the Garden this September - By Dianna Wiklund, FBG Garden Coordinator

September temperatures will be in the normal range but slightly damper than usual for here. What this means is the daily highs will be around 66° F and lows are 55 °F. There should be more rain but not enough to quit watering. The light sprinkles forecast will not help much with our gardens or the local fire danger.

September is another really busy month for gardeners. There is still a lot to harvest and preserve, cover cropping, and winter gardening to set up. It is time again to think about and set up season extenders. This is a good time to plant your perennials and overwintering annuals.

Let us look at our Autumn tasks:

Harvest: The last of the green beans and corn will come in this month. Also many of our fruit trees will be dropping their summer loads. (try to catch them before they hit the ground or the deer get them.) The rest of the potatoes will be ready as will many of our brassicas. It is also time for tomato and zucchini overload. Enjoy them now while they are freshest. The fall greens will start coming in and hopefully continue throughout the fall into winter.

Planting: Yes there is still time to plant for fall and winter harvest. Both perennials and annuals can be planted now.

Early this month you can direct seed or transplant beets and salad greens under cloches or in a greenhouse.

Late in the month plant overwintering veggies for harvest next spring. Planting salad greens, beets, carrots, snow peas as well as grasses like wheat, barley, oats and rye now will give you a chance at an early start next year. The grasses and legumes also make good cover crops.

Perennials benefit from fall planting. It gives their roots a couple of months to get established before it gets too dark to grow. Leave as many leaves on your deciduous trees and bushes as possible when you transplant them so they can feed their roots. Give them a good start before winter closes in and everything shuts down for a few months.

Winter Gardening: Winter spacing is different from summer. All the plants need more room for air circulation and for cloches or frames to cover them. Give each plant about twice as much room as you would in spring. When our winters are mild many things will hold in the garden all winter long. When our winters are cold not as much survives but we will never really know until spring. I have had some amazing stuff take off and grow like crazy in March.

Season extenders: Floating row covers or just old sheets can help keep plants from frost damage. Cloches can be made from clear plastic or glass bottles. Sizes can be anything from a two liter soda bottle to a 5 gallon water jug. A wooden frame or a straw bale frame with an old window can work for a cold frame to help plants survive our winters. A hoop house can be low and cover just one row or larger to cover multiple beds. It can be covered with floating row covers or greenhouse plastic. Extending our growing season could become very important in the coming years with food scarcity increasing world wide. Practicing now may help us keep our families and community fed and healthy in the years to come.

Happy Gardening!

Have questions/comments?

Dianna can be reached at: FBGgardencoordinator@gmail.com

Year-to-Date Harvest -

9,776.5 pounds

3162 Volunteer Hours

2586 Transplant Starts.

All the gardens are in high gear with TOO MUCH OF EVERYTHING. Isn’t it nice to live in a place that grows on YOU! Thank you for the generosity of your time.

Upcoming Events

Click for full monthly calendar of opportunities - gardening, harvesting, gleaning…

(Located on the front page of FoodBankGrowers.org website.)

September 23 - Port Townsend Farmer’s Market
Come out and see us at our booth.
August - October, Gleaning begins
If you’d like to be a gleaner of backyard orchards this year, learn more HERE and sign up to get email notifications of upcoming picks.

Recent Postings on FoodBankGrowers.org

High Harvest Snap Shots

How to Make Gleaning Bags

Blue Ribbon Winner

Top Harvest at Swan Farms

Goosefoot Free Veggie Boxes Feed the Community

Working up a Storm at Salish

Volunteers Needed for:

Garden Managers -- Each garden needs a point person -- someone who can point to what to do next… This year we're partnering new Garden Managers with experienced ones for every step. Between them, Dianna, and the Monthly "to dos", you'll have everything you need to produce baskets full of produce.

Growers - - Learn how to grow fresh food for the Food Banks while learning how to grow food for yourself at home. We guarantee the every day you'll learn something new. All gardens will need help -- the more volunteers, the easier and more fun the work becomes. Go to the MAP SECTION of the website and locate a garden near you. Stay at one, or rotate through many. Hours differ by garden.

Harvesters - Each garden will need harvesters to pick and prepare the produce for the Food Bank distribution. Hours differ by garden.

Gleaners - The season has started and the plums are perfect. Volunteer at at PTgleaning@gmail.com for donating a fruit tree’s fruit or gleaning.

VOLUNTEER HERE

Newsletter January 2024

Sun, 04 Feb 2024 17:47:05 GMT

Annual Meeting, January 8th

In this Issue...

In the Garden this month…
Year-to-Date Harvest Numbers
Upcoming Event - Annual Meeting
Recent Postings
How to Volunteer

January in the Garden

The weather for this month looks to be warmer than average,especially the lows. Port Townsend area averages a high of 44° F and a low of 38° F with a daily precipitation of 0.2 inches. Precipitation maybe a bit high this year according to NOAA. If we don’t get a good freeze we will have more trouble with insects in the coming spring. Also some of our trees need a certain number of frost days to fruit well. I have hopes for a good February freeze but we shall have to wait and see.

Planning

It is seed dreaming time. Time to look through our stored seeds and seed catalogs and see what we want to grow this year. There are always interesting new varieties to try and old reliable favorites to stock upon. Remember to review your crop rotation while planning what to grow and where you will be planting it.

Seed Storage

This is very important for all long term gardeners. Whether you are buying seeds or saving them yourself, how you store them is very important. Jadyne Reichner at Oatplanter Seeds has done a great deal of research on seed storage and generously shared it with the Growing Groceries classes. I have listened to her talk on seed saving many times and my main takeaway has been that seeds last longer when stored in glass jars. I have tried this and it works really well. Larger seed packets and buying in bulk are often cheaper. (Don’t forget that FBG has a seed library that is available to all our Garden Managers.) So if you can save the seed reliably this is a wonderful way to save money. Yes, you still need a cool, dark place to store them in.

Planting

Yes we can begin planting, at least starts inside. When setting up your starts it is important to plant more than you think you will need. There are often challenges over the next few months and if you have extras at transplant time you can always pass them onto others who were not so lucky. I try to plant at least 25% to 30% more than I need.

This is a good time to start your allium seeds. These do not need additional light as many are light sensitive but do not want it too cold.
You can also start some slow growing flowers as well as artichokes, endive, lettuce and lavender.
I have also started some tomatoes and peppers later in the month. These just need more transplanting up before they go to their final location.

Garden Tasks

Time to set up your propagation area.
Clean up your reused pots and check out any grow lights and mats you have.
This is a good time to clean up your pathways and maybe do some sheet mulching. I have been experimenting with topping my pathway card board with sand. I still get some weeds but they are really easy to pull and it lasts a lot longer than wood chips. One drawback is the cats think it is a litter box, however this is better than them using freshly planted beds.

Harvest

For those who have managed to keep their winter garden going the harvest continues. Fresh broccoli sprouts and winter greens, overwintering carrots and beets, scallions and leeks all liven up our winter meals. It is a treat to go out to harvest even in January and have these tasty treats to share. I hope that next year we can all plan to keep our gardens growing year round so we can continue to Grow, Gather and Give.

HappyGardening!

Dianna Wiklund ��

FBG GardenCoordinator

Year-to-Date Harvest

We have a high bar to reach in 2024. Last year we gave away 36845 pounds.

Thank you Harvest Data Queen, Noreen Andrews for keeping watch and keeping score.

ANNUAL MEETING

Food Bank Farm & Gardens of Jefferson County, Inc. dba Food Bank Growers

Monday, January 8, 2024

5:30-6:45 PM

Humphrey Room

Jefferson County Public Library

620 Cedar Avenue

Irondale/Port Hadlock, WA

Also available on zoom link if you send a request for the link to FBGSecretary@gmail.com by January 7th.

This Month’s Postings on FoodBankGrowers.org

A Healthy New Year with Nutritionally Dense Food

Recovery Cafe, turns “any vegetable” into an amazing tart.

Volunteers Needed for:

NEXT SEASON Garden Managers -- Each garden needs a point person -- someone who can point to what to do next… This year we're partnering new Garden Managers with experienced ones for every step. Between them, Dianna, and the Monthly "to dos", you'll have everything you need to produce baskets full of produce.

WINTER Growers - - Learn how to grow fresh food for the Food Banks while learning how to grow food for yourself at home. We guarantee the every day you'll learn something new. All gardens will need help -- the more volunteers, the easier and more fun the work becomes. Go to the MAP SECTION of the website and locate a garden near you. Stay at one, or rotate through many. Hours differ by garden.

WINTER Harvesters - Each garden will need harvesters to pick and prepare the produce for the Food Bank distribution. Hours differ by garden.

GLEANERS The gleaning season is over, but if you want to be included in 2024 tree donation or volunteer to pick - write to PTgleaning@gmail.com .

VOLUNTEER HERE for computer work, writing, office-type duties…

Newsletter February 2024

Sun, 04 Feb 2024 17:37:55 GMT

Annual Meeting info included

In this Issue...

In the Garden this month…
Year-to-Date Harvest Numbers
Annual Report and New Board Member introduction
Recent Postings
How to Volunteer

February in the Garden

February is the toughest month in which to predict weather. I have seen it in the teens and I have seen it in the 70’s. It is really varied. February has the highest chance of snowfall. The average temperature is 47° - 39° F. This month looks to start cooler than average then warm up. There is a new weather station in Chimacum that will help us get more local temperature including soil temps. https://weather.wsu.edu/ . You might want to check it out.

It is time to get started with many indoor starts . Set up your grow space with heat mats and lights or just clear a windowsill. Some seeds can be started early and don't need or want excess heat and light. These are mainly onions which are light sensitive. Others benefit from a little extra warmth and light like lettuce but not too much. These do well in window sills. Then we move onto plants that will not germinate without warmth at about 70° F and as much light as they can get. Tomatoes, peppers, etc. Basil also falls in this category so much so as to need light on the seeds to germinate. Brassicas want it warmer than lettuce but not as warm as the heat lovers. I tend to start them on the heat mats and then move them to the edges so they are warmish but not fully heated. They still need as much light as you can give them.

Planting: This is a watch and see time. The local forecast is our best bet for timing . Is it going to freeze again or will it warm up and everything will thrive. Usually we can plant perennial herbs and berry bushes now. Sometimes we can plant peas or at least start them inside for transplanting. Beets, radishes, turnips and spinach may be able to start but it is a gamble. If you have excess seed give it a try but cover them either with row covers or cloches. Yes you can still plant garlic and put out onion sets now for a later harvest this summer.

Garden work: Now is the time to clean up your beds and get them ready. Clear a few cover crops and turn in or cut down green manure. Add Compost. Start new beds or set out straw bales for straw bale gardening. It is still too wet to do much weeding but clearing weeds from the pathways and adding cardboard and mulch or sand to keep them in place is a good project.

Harvesting: For those lucky enough or foresightful enough to have gotten their winter garden through last month's freeze there are still some things to harvest. Beets, sprouting broccoli, carrots, lettuce, spinach, sunchokes, and turnips as well as many herbs.

Planning ahead will help us get more produce in these shoulder seasons. I hope we can all improve our gardens and extend our growing season year round. So we can better Grow, Gather and Give for many years to come.

Happy Gardening

Dianna Wiklund ��

FBG Garden Coordinator

Year-to-Date Harvest - 31 pounds! Yes, you can grow in the PNW winter.

2023 Annual Report and new board introduction

This Month’s Postings on FoodBankGrowers.org

THANK YOU VOLUNTEERS

New Year Resolution - Better Nutrition

Recovery Cafe and Food Bank Grower s

Cold Snap Coverup

Meet Bonnie Obremski, Board Member

Meet Milly Lierman, Board Member

Meet Gayle Petrick, Board Member

Meet Lee BeBout, Board Secretary

Volunteers Needed for:

NEXT SEASON Garden Managers -- Each garden needs a point person -- someone who can point to what to do next… This year we're partnering new Garden Managers with experienced ones for every step. Between them, Dianna, and the Monthly "to dos", you'll have everything you need to produce baskets full of produce.

WINTER Growers - - Learn how to grow fresh food for the Food Banks while learning how to grow food for yourself at home. We guarantee the every day you'll learn something new. All gardens will need help -- the more volunteers, the easier and more fun the work becomes. Go to the MAP SECTION of the website and locate a garden near you. Stay at one, or rotate through many. Hours differ by garden.

WINTER Harvesters - Each garden will need harvesters to pick and prepare the produce for the Food Bank distribution. Hours differ by garden.

GLEANERS - The gleaning season starts in August. If you want to be included in 2024 tree donation or volunteer to pick - write to PTgleaning@gmail.com .

VOLUNTEER HERE for computer work, writing, office-type duties… if you have skills to donate, we will find a place for them.

Meet Lee BeBout, FBG Board Secretary 2024-27

Thu, 18 Jan 2024 18:14:24 GMT

From micro to macro growing.

Lee Bebout may be new to Port Townsend and to the FBG.org, but she is loaded with experience and gumption.

As the incoming FBG secretary, Lee will be at ground zero learning quickly what it takes to keep this organization running efficiently. She will be responsible for meeting minutes and reminders. No small task. There is no faster way to learn how a group ticks then taking notes and archiving them correctly.

Her pre-retirement job was environmental microbial ecology (study of relationships between microbes and their environments) in marine, and extreme environments at NASA. Projects ranged from looking at how microbes on Earth influence minerals and the atmosphere, to applications for production of biofuels and food. Part of the work focused on learning how to cultivate challenging microalgal species. However, she may find that it was much easier than growing tomatoes in Port Townsend. Lee and her husband Brad continue to experiment with close-to-home food via their greenhouse and garage-based aquaponics set up for growing trout, vegetables and herbs.

We're looking forward to Lee's fresh eyes on our processes and the enthusiasm she brings to the position.

Meet Gayle Petrick, FBG Board Member

Thu, 18 Jan 2024 06:07:54 GMT

FairWinds Garden Cultivator

Gayle Petrick has been a local fixture in PT and Chimacum for a long time -- first as a growers of local organic veggies and trees before it was trendy; and later as the owner of Heliotrope Mirthful Bakery in downtown Port Townsend (1997-2007). As a baker he was ahead of his time producing healthful, grain-infused breads while the world was still under the spell of Wonder Bread.

Today he has literally returned to his roots and vines and flowers by taking on both a market garden and our latest food bank garden at FairWinds winery. The Market Garden will cover around 10,000 square feet and the Food Bank Garden 5,000 square feet. He plans to keep it all manageable by planting lots of perennials and herbs that the other food bank gardens don't grow such as Blueberries, Strawberries, Rhubarb, Asparagus, and Artichokes.

We look forward to Gayle's guidance on the board for what works well in this community.

2023 Annual Report

Thu, 18 Jan 2024 01:46:30 GMT

Welcome New FBG Board Members

It's official, as of January 8, 2024, we now have nine board members to help guide our growing organization. Having nine members with staggered board terms will keep the institutional memory strong and also makes for a nice "Brady Bunch" Zoom room picture.

The annual report is four pages long. You can open up the 2023 PDF HERE . It will also be permanently available on the Annual Report Page.

Joining the FBG Board are:

Lee Bebout, FBG Secretary

Gayle Petrick, Board Member

Bonnie Obremski, Board Member

Milly Lierman, Board Member

Returning board members are:

Mark Paxton, President

Mary Hunt, Vice President

Emmy Lou Stein, Treasurer

Lys Burden, Board Member

Birch Shapiro, Board Member

You can always find out who is on the Board or Committees by checking in the ABOUT section (Board & Committees)

Cover Up Buttercup (and onions and kale and lettuces...)

Thu, 18 Jan 2024 01:44:40 GMT

A Very Cold Snap... Jan. 11-16, 2024

Even if you do have a blanket on, when it's covered with snow and the temps are in the teens, it's dang cold. How did our produce come through? The Grange had most of their babies snuggled in and so did Salish (shown here). The carrots took a hit as did the green onions and the brassicas, but they should bounce back with a bit of spring heat under their blankies.

The lettuce in the hoop house? It looked good, but you really didn't want to touch the very fragile leaves that iced up in spite of the protection. Next week will tell the take if they will make it until Spring.

One thing we know for sure - only Kale is tough enough to take a-blowing and keep on growing.

Meet Milly Lierman, FBG Board Member at Large

Thu, 18 Jan 2024 01:44:37 GMT

Serving 2024-2027

Milly Lierman is a retired electrical engineer who grew up on a wheat farm and always had a garden. Prior to moving to PT, she and her husband Keith Lierman volunteered with the Kitsap GRACE garden serving a dozen food banks, the Giving Garden in Kingston, and Buck Lake Native Plant Garden.

Currently Milly volunteers Kul Kah Han native plant garden in Chimacum, at the Salish Coast Production garden, with the PT Gleaners, and participated on the Apple Sauce making project.

Milly and Keith also maintain two home gardens here and in Tucson and have ties to the Native Seeds/SEARCH seed bank and Mission Garden. She also serves on the board for the Tucson Audubon garden and the Struss Manor on Pantano, a low income senior hosing facility where she created a sustainability Committee.

The FBG Board looks forward to utilizing Milly's diverse background of knowledge and passion for healthy soil, plants, and society.

She can be reached at (include email?)

Meet Bonnie Obremski, FBG Board Member 2024-27

Thu, 18 Jan 2024 01:44:26 GMT

She's well-rooted in PT culture

Bonnie Obremski is a career journalist in print and digital media. She's covered governmental board meetings as a beat reporter in Massachusetts. After moving to Port Townsend, she provided social media content for the Centrum Foundation and Jefferson County Public Health . As a communications specialist at the health department, she focused specifically on educating and responding to the public during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Currently, Bonnie is the communication specialist for Olympic Community of Health where she works to support the health of the Olympic region. She also volunteers at the Salish Coast Elementary Garden where she's been witnessing the transformation of kids as they taste and love the fresh food coming from the garden.

Bonnie brings the perspective of the working generation to the FBG board with an eye on how what we do now helps build a more food-secure society.

THANK YOU Volunteers!

Thu, 11 Jan 2024 20:40:05 GMT

The community responds...

What a lovely surprise at the January Annual Meeting to see these cards from those who receive the veggies and fruit coming from growers and gleaners.

Below are the cards received from the Quilcene Food Bank (large), Dove House, Jefferson Community Foundation, and the Chimacum Elementary School.

Please advance the pictures to see all of the thank yous on these beautiful cards.

New Year Resolution - Better Nutrition...

Sun, 31 Dec 2023 16:28:07 GMT

Less junk and more good stuff

Happy New Year!

If your New Year's Day resolutions are like millions of others, then losing weight, maybe going "dry" for a month, and finding ways to eat a more healthy and sustainable diet is on the bucket list.

Your wish list is also one of FBG's core values: " That consistent access to adequate daily nutrition is a fundamental human right." ( See more on our OVERVIEW page)

Most "lose weight" options are all about calories, but FBG is all about nutrition first -- making every calorie count -- but how do you know what's best? It's not as if there is a label on the side of a carrot that tells you what's inside.

One way is to look up foods on Cronometer.com . It's a free website for individuals with a monthly price tag for professional use.

What can you get from eating ONE carrot? 85% of your daily Vitamin A plus a splash of lots of other nutrients and proteins, as well as 10% of your fiber needs. All of which interact with other foods which make the nutrients more available for your body to use.

Try loading in what you eat in one day and see the results. Cronometer.com is oddly addicting and fun as you learn how much nutrition comes from greens, beans, rice, roots, berries...

Here's to a happy and HEALTHY 2024!

Recovery Cafe and Food Bank Growers

Fri, 29 Dec 2023 23:58:30 GMT

By Kate Nichols

adapted by Karen King

1-1-2023

(Above Left) Karen mixes the salad. (Above) Joy turns the potatoes while Mary checks the oven.

The Recovery Café is a great place for a warm lunch from Tuesday to Friday, 12-2:00 pm. The lunches use many donated ingredients from local farms and the Food Bank gardens. One favorite recipe that uses a wide variety of vegetables from the gardens is the Any Vegetable Tart . (below) It’s good one to make if you need to use some of those vegetables you aren’t quite sure what to do with.

Karen King is the Recovery Café staff member who manages the kitchen. She works to build strong teams of volunteers for each day. Some of the volunteers are regulars, some are more ad hoc. Karen and the teams plan menus weekly, based on the donated produce from the Food Bank gardens as well as other contributions that Karen acquires from a wide variety of sources.

One kitchen volunteer and professional baker, Carol , comes in on Mondays when the café is closed. She bakes bread, cookies, cupcakes, or muffins for the week’s meals. Often, as we cook a meal, we have brainstorm how to make a recipe taste even better, like adding ginger or more salt, or garlic, something to give it more zing. All the volunteers are talented and valued.

The recipe below shows you the original recipe, which was written to serve eight people, but at the café we often serve 45 to 50 meals, so Karen has included instructions for how to increase the recipe from the original eight servings to as many as fifty.

The Café is a program of the Dove House Advocacy Services. It is a full member of the Recovery Café Network , a nationwide model of recovery peer support. The Café welcomes anyone who is in recovery from something. Besides a meal there are Circles for members to join to get support, yoga, a monthly open mic and other community activities. Join us for a meal!

The recipe for Any Vegetable Tart follows:

by Melissa Clark of NYTimes
Adapted by Karen King, Recovery Café

Time; 1 hour, plus cooling

Perfect for causal eating, this rustic tart can be tailored to whatever vegetables you have on hand. The key here is to use either precooked vegetables, or quick-cooking raw vegetables that won’t release too much liquid, making the pastry soggy. So the crust tastes like a buttery cheese straw, an optional layer of grated Gruyere or cheddar is scattered onto the bottom of the baking pan before the dough is placed on top. The whole tart bakes up golden brown, savory and wonderfully crunchy. Serve this on the same day its baked for maximum flakiness .

Ingredients

This recipe is scaled up for 50 people from the original yield of 8 servings. The original yield of 8 is (in parentheses). It shows how the Recovery Cafe scales up recipes.

2 1/2 C (1/2 cup) Shredded Gruyere or Cheddar
8 eggs (1 large egg) at room temperature
10 Tbls (2 Tbls) grated Parmesan
10 tsp (1 tsp) finely grated lemon zest or finely chopped rosemary
10 cloves garlic (1 clove), finely grated or crushed to a paste (optional)
Kosher salt and black pepper to taste
3 C (3/4 C) crème fraiche or mascarpone (Greek yogurt)
All-purpose flour, for dusting the work surface.
4 + 1 Gluten free) (1 14 ounce) package puff pastry,
Preferably made with butter, thawed if frozen, but still cold
10-12 C sliced vegetables.

Preparation
Step 1
Put a rack in the center of the oven and heat oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a silicone liner or parchment paper. If you like, you can sprinkle Gruyere or Cheddar on to the center of the liner or paper in an approximate 10 by 13-inch rectangle.

Step 2
In a medium bowl, whisk together egg, Parmesan, lemon zet or rosemary, garlic and a pinch of salt and pepper, until smooth. Beat in crème fraiche (yogurt) until smooth.

Step 3
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the puff pastry to form a 10-by-13-inch rectangle, about ¼ inch thick. Transfer the dough to prepared baking sheet. (Place directly on top of the grated cheese, if applicable) With a sharp knife, lightly score 3/4 inch border around the edges of the puff pastry, making sure not to cut the pastry all the way through. Using a fork, prick the pastry all over inside the border at 1-inch intervals.

Step 4
Spread Crème fraiche mixture evenly inside the scored border. Arrange vegetables in an even layer, using just enough to cover the surface in one layer. Scatter scallions and thyme or rosemary sprigs on top. Lightly drizzle with oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Step 5
Bake until the pastry is puffed and golden, and the vegetables are cooked through, about 25 to 35 minutes. Transfer pan to wire rack and cool for at least 15 minutes before serving. Serve topped with microgreens, herbs and accompanied by lemon or lime wedges for squeezing.

TIP: Quick-cooking vegetables include broccoli, broccolini, cut ½ inch florets; cherry tomatoes, halved and drained on paper towels; thinly sliced sugar snap peas; thin asparagus cut into 2-inlche lengths (on bias is nice); corn kernels. Or use precooked vegetables, such as roasted or grilled sliced onions, fennel, eggplant, zucchini or peppers; marinated artichokes; roasted roots like potatoes, sweet potatoes, parsnips or carrots; sauteed mushrooms or greens like spinach, chard, pea shoots, cabbage or kale.

Newsletter December 2023

Sun, 03 Dec 2023 00:38:37 GMT

December in the Garden

The first half of the month NOAA predicts to be warmer and wetter than normal. Our average temperatures for December are between 44° and 37° F. with about .4 inches of rain per day. So what that actually means is temperatures will range between the upper 20’s and the high 50s and it will be wet.

December is a time for planning and dreaming thinking ahead about what the garden will be next year. It's time to think about what you want to grow and what you can grow. This is time to look back on what worked and what didn't work in the past year. This is time to inventory both seeds and tools.

Seeds

Look through your stored seeds and maybe check their germination rates. A few seeds on a paper plate with a moistened paper napkin in a plastic bag or you could use a scrap of cotton fabric folded over a few seeds lightly moistened and in a covered glass dish. Germinated seeds can still be planted if you have the indoor space.
It is time to look through seed catalogs and dream a bit and see what new varieties you might want to try.
Think about crop rotation and where to move your favorite veggies so they will grow healthy and strong.
Consider what perennial plants you would like to put in and will you start from seeds or it gets young plants.

Tools

It is also time to inventory your tools. Check out and see if anything has been damaged or is in need of maintenance.
Cleaning your tools and oiling them is a good way to make them last longer.
What tools would you like for next year and what would make gardening easier maybe put them on a wish list.

Mulch

Once again it is time to check the mulch and see that it is doing its job keeping roots warm, keeping the perennial plants safe and cozy in a winter blanket. You might need to add some mulch as the season progresses. See if the wind is blowing it away or if it is settled and it's no longer covering all the plant that needs covering.

This is also a good time to gather leaves for next year. Fall leaves can be used in compost piles or become mulch for next spring beds. Leaf mulch is a great garden amendment. It's a wonderful seed starting medium. It could also be used in the spring as a light cover for new beds. Pile leaves in open compost bins such as chicken wire circles or a wooden square with open slats or a pallet square. Leaving them open to both the rain and the ground will help them decompose faster by letting insects, invertebrates and fungi have access to them.

Planting and Harvesting

For those who can't resist there are a few hardy flowers that can be planted this time of year alliums, asters, bellas and some Wildflower mixes can still be put in the ground.
Harvest wise there are many things that can be brought in from the winter garden. Brussel sprouts are now at their tastiest. Winter apples are coming on after the first frost. There are still greens and broccoli rabb. Jerusalem artichokes are ready to be dug and enjoyed. You can still pull your beets, carrots and turnips. Winter harvests are very tasty and sweet.

Happy Garden Dreaming

Dianna Wiklund ��

FBGGardenCoordinator@gmail.com

Year-to-Date Harvest

14000 pounds of veggies from the FBG Gardens and 14500 pounds from the Gleaners. (click for more details)

Give the Gift of a Healthy Community

How you can help us grow nutritionally-dense, fresh food for the Food Banks and Schools

This Month’s Postings on FoodBankGrowers.org

Give the gift of a healthy community

28500 pounds of Good Eatin’

Drill Baby. Drill!

Easy Clean Tool tips

Sweeter “Ice” Kale

Greens, Purples, Oranges, and Reds in winter

Sail Away Time for the Boat Garden

Volunteers Needed for:

NEXT SEASON Garden Managers -- Each garden needs a point person -- someone who can point to what to do next… This year we're partnering new Garden Managers with experienced ones for every step. Between them, Dianna, and the Monthly "to dos", you'll have everything you need to produce baskets full of produce.

WINTER Growers - - Learn how to grow fresh food for the Food Banks while learning how to grow food for yourself at home. We guarantee the every day you'll learn something new. All gardens will need help -- the more volunteers, the easier and more fun the work becomes. Go to the MAP SECTION of the website and locate a garden near you. Stay at one, or rotate through many. Hours differ by garden.

WINTER Harvesters - Each garden will need harvesters to pick and prepare the produce for the Food Bank distribution. Hours differ by garden.

GLEANERS! The gleaning season is over, but if you want to be included in 2024 tree donation or volunteer to pick - write to PTgleaning@gmail.com .

VOLUNTEER HERE for other much needed help -- computer work, writing, office-type duties…

How You Can Help

Sat, 02 Dec 2023 23:28:31 GMT

Give the gift of a healthy community

Do you enjoy nutritious food each day — the kind that lets you thrive, not just survive?

About one-in-four people in Jefferson County do not. They lack consistent access to adequate nutrition. That does not mean people have nothing to eat. What food insecurity means in our community, is that many people do not have access to food that can sustain healthy lives.

Luckily we live in a temperate zone that can grow food year around, but that food is out of reach for many. This is why FoodBankGrower.org was born. For 11 years, scores of volunteers have worked on donated land to take food “from seed to the need”. We grow, gather, and give organically grown and nutritionally-dense food to the east Jefferson County food banks located in Port Townsend, Brinnon, Quilcene, Coyle, Eaglemount, and the Tri-area.

To do this we need soil, tools, structures, and supplies so that our volunteers can grow produce or glean it from backyard orchards and give it to the Food Banks for distribution. Even though our volunteers work without pay, good food costs money.

And here’s how you can hel p.

Once each year, Food Bank Growers join Jefferson Community Foundation’s United Good Neighbors campaign. By going to either foodbankgrowers.org/donations , or by connecting with givejefferson.org and selecting Food Bank Growers , you can help sustain the work we do and help families thrive. United Good Neighbors aims to keep your generosity within Jefferson County, connecting with vital community needs. What can be more vital than good food?

Your contribution links you directly to the thousands of pounds of produce, and to the thousands of grateful people, whose lives are enriched by Food Bank Growers. Please consider turning your dollars into hope and a thriving community. There is nothing as satisfying as sharing good food.

Our sincere thanks.

Mark Paxton

FBG Presiden t

.

36,845 Pounds of Good Eatin' in 2023

Sat, 02 Dec 2023 23:11:56 GMT

THANK YOU Volunteers for pounds of caring as well.

12-1-2023 (NEW AMOUNTS ADDED on 12-11-2023

It's almost a wrap on the 2023 season. As of this date, the Growers and Gleaners gave away over 34,847.05 pounds of veggies and fruits.

What's does a pound represent ?

The pictured bag of lettuce is about a pound or a week's worth of salads.

One pound is also equals:

3 apples or...
6-8 plums
3 big or 5 small leeks
5 medium tomatoes
6 medium carrots
3 medium beets
2 medium onions
etc.

In other words, 8 pounds of produce becomes the base for many meals and a couple nice desserts.

If you divide those 8 pounds of produce into 36,847.05 we gave away the basis of over 4605 meals in 2023. If everyone made soup, it would be many more meals per person, but you get the idea.

The pounds also translate into over 4000 volunteer hours of love for our community via over 100 volunteers. We do more than start seeds, plant, harvest, glean, make apple sauce... our organizational work and fund raising also ensures projects continue from one year to the next.

Besides helping to make nutritionally-dense food available to all in our community, these hours represent the time spent getting to know food security issues and each other by sharing garden tips, recipes, pictures, lives... Each week our neighbor-to-neighbor work illuminates what makes East Jefferson Country such a safe and fun place.

Thank you all for giving of your time, talents, and tips -- it all helps when growing a community.

Pictured Below: FBG Treasurer Emmy Lou Stein and Garden Coordinator, Dianna Wiklund talk to Chimacum students how they can help grow nutritionally-dense food for the food banks.

Drill Baby, Drill!

Sat, 02 Dec 2023 21:41:03 GMT

Followed by, Hold Fast Bill!

Volunteering with FBG is not just about getting your hands in the soil, planting and harvesting. FBG appreciates and is grateful for volunteers with infrastructure skills.

Here, Quimper Grange FBG Garden volunteers Bill LeMaster (in the day-glo hat and gloves), and drill sergeant J. J. Johnson are re-hanging these garden doors so that they swing open more easily for humans while keeping the deer out. Next step will be to bunny-proof the doors so bunnies can’t slip under them.

Do you have skills to share? Think about making 2024 the year you socialize through putting your talents to work. We need movers, shakers, and hold-things-togethers.

Garden Tool Tips

Thu, 30 Nov 2023 18:17:05 GMT

Time and Tool saving ideas to steal

Full disclosure - I (Mary Hunt) have about 12 shovels, rakes, and hoes in my garage from Red Hen garden that need to be brushed up and winterized with a coating of oil. It's busy work that I've been putting off... next year, I won't have to do that because I'll be employing the above idea I saw last week.

Red Hen is done for the season and that means I have time to work in other gardens like the Quimper Grange garden. Doing so has allowed me to see the systems this 10 year old garden has in place to keep busy without the busy work.

Above is a dry sand box (kept under a roof). Next to it is a wire brush. When done using the tool, push it down into the sand and it's clean. Any stubborn clumps can be brushed off in a second. (Neil Howe at the Salish garden takes it a step further and puts oil IN the sand to accomplish both cleaning and sealing at the same time.)

After that, it's hung up in the (again, dry) shed and cleverly kept in place on the double beams and JJ's stretchy cord system. Hand tools are dropped in a bucket to keep them in one place.

The tools are always ready to go in any season and the messy work is kept in the sand box.

Every time I work in a new garden, I learn a new trick. Do you have a time-saver to share? Send it to me with a picture and description. MaryClareHunt@gmail.com

Sweet(er) Ice Kale and more

Thu, 30 Nov 2023 17:49:17 GMT

Frosty weather has its paybacks

Have you heard of ice wine ? It's a specialty made from picking grapes after they have frozen on the vine and before they thaw. They offer a sweeter version of themselves and tends to be on the pricey side.

May we offer the FBG's counter part -- Ice Kale!

Kale (or any brassica) becomes sweeter during cold weather -- the plants convert the starch in their leaves to sugar (think anti-freeze) as a way to keep the their cells from being damaged. As the sugar is released it becomes less likely to freeze and also sweeter. The same goes for root veggies this time of year.

Once cooked, the sweetness really reveals itself. Below is a Brussels Sprouts leaf which is often discarded for the sprouts, but it you steam it for a minute it becomes an excellent wrap for leftover veggies. Add some sauce, bake, and voila -- delicious dinner greens.

Greens in Winter (and Purples, Oranges, Reds...)

Sun, 26 Nov 2023 20:58:00 GMT

The sun never sets on the Grange Garden…

Above: Louise Huntingford shows off fall planted carrots now ready for harvesting in November along with one monster carrot that missed being picked in the summer.

The first frost of the year provides our carrots, beets, and celeriac with extra sweetness! It also reminds us of the importance of keeping our beds covered, not only to protect from freezing, but also to protect the soil from the rain’s erosion and compaction.

About half of our ‘cover crops’ have been sown, using Crimson Clover, Austrian Field Peas, and Diana Fava Beans as the main crops. The field peas and fava beans double as edible crops! These will be harvested and/or chopped into the beds before spring crops are planted.

The rhubarb patch has been divided to create another permanent crop bed. We use the ‘lasagna’ method of layering fresh greens and fall leaves, with a layer of dirt on top, and sprinkled with clover seeds. This method will produce a deep, luscious layer of compost in which to plant our crops in the spring. Other permanent crop beds, besides rhubarb, include elephant garlic (grown for winter greens), and late-season strawberries.

Above: Mary Beth Haralovich bunches up green onions to take to the PT Food Bank.

There is plenty of work to do. The Quimper Grange Food Bank Garden i s one of the few Food Bank Growers gardens to produce crops throughout the winter for our local food banks. How can we do that? With the help of hardy volunteers, donations of supplies and funds, and our donated hoop houses which extend our growing season enormously.

We really need help in harvesting, washing pots, making lasagna beds, and weeding! Join the team any time Tuesday or Friday afternoons 1:00-3:00 to have fun, learn about growing (food/friendships), gathering (harvest /camaraderie), and giving (food/support to each other). ALL the produce grown at this garden is donated to food banks and other similar entities to enhance food security in our area.

Contact FoodBankGrowers@gmail.com to volunteer at this garden or one near you.

Submitted by: Barbara Tusting, Quimper Grange Garden Manager .

It's Sail Away Time at the Boat School Garden

Wed, 08 Nov 2023 23:45:18 GMT

11-9-2023

At the end of October, volunteers at the Boat School Garden celebrated their achievements of 2023 and set the gears in motion for another productive year in 2024. A team of 7 volunteers met at the garden in the early afternoon to plant 100 cloves of garlic for 2024. Garlic is an enjoyable crop that requires a bit of attention at planting, a bit of effort during the growing season, but mostly it requires 9 months of patience until harvesting, and what’s happening underground is a bit of a mystery! In addition to working in Food Bank Growers beds, the team also helped out in a non-FBG bed by harvesting potatoes, readying the space for more garlic, and then planting it.

The volunteers at the Boat School Garden are a blend of ages and talents who consistently show up in mind, body and spirit. They always pack along their wonderfully positive attitude and work hard for the couple of hours that we allocate to grow food for the food banks, socialize, and support each other. As a way of showing appreciation the group was later treated to a celebration event at the home of the Garden Manager (Noreen Andrews) where they were joined by additional volunteers and enjoyed a warm outdoor fire, food and beverage, and singing with guitar accompaniment by our very talented Kelly .

Many thanks to the following volunteers who helped keep the Boat School Garden growing and giving in 2023: Betsy Davis, Ryan Grossenbacher, Jennifer Hopkins, Piper Howith, Belinda Jimenez, Kelly Jimenez, Andy Politz, Lisa Politz, Elena Smith, Meagan Taylor, and Jerome Zygar.

Submitted with Much Gratitude,

Noreen Andrews – Garden Manager

Newsletter November 2023

Wed, 01 Nov 2023 23:36:08 GMT

Grabbing the Greens before the Big Chill

In this Issue...

In the Garden this month…
Year-to-Date Harvest Numbers

November in the Garden

The forecast for November is warmer and wetter than average. Average is about 49° - 41° F with 0.1 inches of rain a day. With our first frost usually mid-month. This year our first frost was in October, burr. I hope everyone got their row covers on and everything harvested that can not take the chill. Some veggies like/need a chill to sweeten up like Brussel sprouts and sunchokes. Winter apples also need a bit of chill to bring on their full sweetness. We may get to harvest some of these a bit early this year.

Planting: Yes you can still plant in November just not much.

You can still plant your garlic if you haven’t got it in yet or you find a great deal on acquiring more seed garlic.
Transplant undercover spinach starts.
Fava beans and field peas can still be planted in early November.
Cover crops involving rye, wheat and the above beans and peas.
Many flowers can be direct seeded now too, along with spring flowering bulbs.
One Master Gardener I know is using plastic milk jugs as seed starting containers. First, cut the jug mostly open, half fill it with potting soil, and plant spring seeds inside. Then tape the jugs shut and put them outside for the winter. Rain should get in through the top and sunlight through the jug sides should help keep it warm enough. The hope is for healthy starts in the spring.

Harvesting: Fall harvest continues with many celebrations around the bounty of the year. This year apples have been great and the cider flows freely. The early frosts allow us to harvest some of our winter treats a bit early but don’t get too greedy: save some for later. For those winter gardening there will be fresh greens and other treats hidden under cold frames and in hoophouses. Beets, broccoli, brussel sprouts, carrots, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, lettuce, spinach and winter squash.

Winterizing:

Cold Frame s can be made from many materials including straw bales with a window on top. Wood frames are common and used windows are easily available. These frames really help reduce the effects of wind on winter crops.
Row covers can be placed directly on crops or held above them with a simple hoop frame. This time of year you should switch to a heavy fabric. For those who do not want to use plastics or non-biodegradables in their gardens try covering them with old cotton sheets.
Cloches can also be used around individual plantings. They will help warm the soil and cut the wind, until they blow over. The round ones can be wiggled into the soil or have solid built up around them to help them stay in place. I have seen stakes/ rebar used to hold them in place and to store them all stacked up. Also sock collars filled with gravel or sand could help hold them in place.
Mulch, yes, more mulch. It is the blanket we tuck our gardens in with. With the wind picking up, holding our mulch in place becomes an ongoing challenge. There are several possible methods including but not limited to: laying fencing over it, spreading out old sheets held down with rocks or stacks or logs (just watch for slugs), keeping your mulch damp will also help keep it in place.
Tool care. Now is the time to clean up most of your tools for winter storage. Have a dry place for them out of the weather. Make sure all the dirt is off and they are clean and dry before you put them away for the winter months. Oil or WD40 can help prevent rust and keep the wood lasting longer. Tool sharpening is also a winter task so you might think where that would fit in your schedule before the spring planting rush.

November is a time to celebrate our wonderful harvest and be thankful we live somewhere that we can garden year round.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone and Happy Gardening.

Dianna Wiklund ��

FBG Garden Coordinator

Year-to-Date Harvest

13801 pounds of veggies from the FBG Gardens went to these destinations.

Brinnon Food Bank - 98 pounds
Coyle Pop Up Food Bank - 440 pounds
Eaglemount Pop Up Food Bank - 254 pounds
Port Townsend Food Bank - 2344 pounds
Tri-Area Food Bank - 6256 pounds
Quilcene - 1166 pounds
Recovery Cafe - 43 pounds
PT Schools - 3130 pounds

Gleaners: 13,000 pounds (more or less)

Much was given away fresh to the Food Banks, Senior Centers, Soup Kitchens, and the Schools.
From the fresh apples - 1600 pounds of apple sauce was made and 40 gallons of cider went to the schools.
The Blue Heron Orchard produces about 2000 pounds of fruit a season for fresh eating.
And… all gleaners get to take home as much as they want which isn’t counted in these totals.

Got Seeds?

Wed, 01 Nov 2023 14:15:44 GMT

Next year's produce starts on Halloween

It's Halloween night and while the kids are outside the windows Trick or Treating, we're thumbing through boxes and BOXES of seeds that Mary Beth Haralovich has organized and posted.

The Port Townsend Garden Center gave the Food Bank Growers a jump start by donating their seeds leftover from their summer sale racks. THANK YOU!!! As long as the seeds are kept dry (in those plastic tubs) and out of the light (in Mary Beth's closet) our library of possibilities are good for another year of spring germination.

It's amazing how at the end of a very long season when all you want to do is grab that glass of wine, when presented with such a bounty of promise you can't help yourself.... "I want this, and this, and OMG I can't live without this one... and well maybe just six packets more... "

The greed often outpaces the need, except when you're coming off a season when the voles, mice, birds, bugs ate more than their share of your hard work, well, is six more really enough?

Don't worry, we left plenty for other Garden Managers who couldn't make it to the Seed Sharing meeting, but don't wait too long. Look over the list and contact Mary Beth

All FBG garden managers can see what is (or was) available here:

Herbs

Veggies

Flowers

Photos by Mary Beth Haralovich

Cider time!

Tue, 31 Oct 2023 04:16:24 GMT

Another smashing success with gallons to go.

How do you celebrate the end of a 13,000 pound picking season? By having another work event! Once again the Gleaners had a great time turning 2000 pounds of apples into about 120 gallons of cider distributed over 30 volunteers. Excess cider (about 40 gallons) was delivered to the Port Townsend Schools. Excess mash went to compost piles.

The annual event has settled into a easy routine of work stations:

Stacking the boxes of apples
Washing and editing the apples for bad spots
Chipping them into a mash
Wrapping the mash in cloth and then pressing to extract the cider
Bottling (or bucketing) up the juice.
And of course CLEAN UP and distributing boxes of spent apple mash.

Young Gleaners brought their families which made for great pictures and fun. It's good to see the next generation learning how to enjoy the bounty that grows around us.

Older Gleaners brought dishes made with the fruit gleaned earlier this year creating a delightful spread of taste treats you'll never find anywhere else. All enjoyed with a glass of fresh cider, of course.

Thank you Gleaners for climbing the ladders, toting the boxes, and delivering fresh fruit to our community.

2600 Pounds of Apples = 1600 Pounds of Sauce

Wed, 11 Oct 2023 18:17:50 GMT

11 Hours. 15 Volunteers. 1 Kitchen

How was the sauce? PERFECTION!

This year's crop of apples was excellent -- the mix of sweet with tart created an exceptional taste profile that needed nothing but a spec of salt to bring the flavors up a notch. We've learned how to manage the water to sauce ratio to provide just enough "flow" to get it through the heat exchanger without losing its spoonable character. The students will love it at the salad bar or embedded into baked goods.

A big sticky hug to Soux Saucers -- Seth, Tom, Kathy, Doug, Keith, Milly, Janice, Nicole, Tammy, Mary, Glen, Alex, Dorothy, Suzanne, and Dana. A huge thanks to the Gleaners-at-large who picked literally tons of apples and got them the to Blue Heron Middle school where school cook Bobi Beery cheerfully hosted and made sure we didn't break anything.

Challenges were met, problems pondered and solved and through it all we kept working, taking breaks, multi-training on equipment use... fueled by pizza & cookies (thanks Alex! ). The relief crew came midday, but some made it all the way through to the 11th hour clean up. Missing in action this year, but his crafty presence still felt, Jim Moore , who conceived and created the process, supplied "Fabio" the apple saucing machine and "Hex" the heat exchanger he built from scratch to cool down the sauce.

This was the forth year that the Glean Team picked, sorted, washed, chipped, cooked, and then pushed the sauce through Hex to cool it off before freezing in 3 gallon tubs. The containers can then be defrosted throughout the winter. Each year the process has become more formalized and easier -- what was a study in chaos management four years ago has matured into a zen-like flow of work.

Become a gleaner and next year you too could be on the Glean Team making sauce. Students will love your work.

Newsletter October 2023

Tue, 10 Oct 2023 00:34:14 GMT

The time of year when there is lots to pick from...

In this Issue...

In the Garden this month…
Year-to-Date Harvest Numbers
On the Calendar - Upcoming Events
Recent Postings
How to Volunteer

In the Garden this October - By Dianna Wiklund, FBG Garden Coordinator

According to multiple sources the Quimper peninsula will be slightly cooler and wetter than normal for the first half of the month then slightly warmer and drier the second half. Our average is High of 55° F and a Low of 46° F with about a total of 2” of rain. We are unlikely to need much more watering outside of our green/hoop houses.

October is all about GARLIC. This is the time to plant. If you haven’t ordered your seed garlic it is probably too late. You might find some locally or I have planted store garlic and had good luck but it is always a risk as it was not grown to plant it may carry diseases with it. It is a gamble that can take years to recover from.

Harvest: All the wonderful summer crops. Bring in the last of your beans and peas.

Watch your summer squash and bring in before they get eaten by something else or frost damaged.
Check your winter squash for hardness (should resist a fingernail scratch) and bring in to cure in a warm place 5 -7 days at 80 to 85° F. Then store 50° to 55° F but not below 50° or they will deteriorate quickly.
Remember to store apples and pear away from other produce as the ethylene gas they emit causes other fruit and veg to ripen and decompose .
It is time to take all the green tomatoes and possibly other veggies and turn them into Harvest relish. A wonderful use for just a few garden leftover; cucumbers, green tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, onions, summer squash of any size. Follow a basic relish recipe just keep the ratio of vegetables to vinegar and salt consistent by weight and you can adjust what vegetables you put in and the spices.

Planting: Yes you can still plant in October. It is time for more than just Garlic. But first…

Garlic: Plant your garlic 4” - 6” apart about twice the depth of the clove. Then I cover with a thick layer of straw (usually straight out of the duck house). Both straw and leaves work well as mulch. I have also taken to planting garlic in the cinder blocks I use around my beds. One clove per hole works really well. Again mulch deeply 2” - 4”.
This is a good time to plant cane fruit, radishes, peas to overwinter, fava beans, shallots and multiplier onions. This is also the time to plant fruit trees and flower bulbs.
Cover crops should be in as early as you can manage this month . As soon as you have emptied any bed, replant it with your favorite cover crop to turn in or cut down next spring.

Winterizing your Garden:

Sheet mulch: If you are not cover cropping you can cover your beds with cardboard and compost, manures, straw (not hay) or other covering material. This will help keep the weeds down and the bed warmer going into spring. This is also a good practice for any new ground you want to start gardening in next spring.
Mulch your perennials: All your perennials could use some winter protection. I heavily mulch my artichokes and asparagus. The raspberries and strawberries get extra bark or wood chips. When young I also mulch my fruit trees with duck house straw for extra nutrients. Manures and straw work too.
Doing all this garden work don’t forget to watch for and remove any slugs and their eggs while you are working about your garden. I lay boards down at the ends of my beds and look under them to collect slugs and snails for removal (also known as duck treats).
It is time to consider putting your watering system to bed for winter. Drain and remove anything you think will be damaged by freezing.

I have seen snow in October at least twice in the last 50 years. So it is unlikely but it can happen. I also have temperatures in the 70’s. So expect what you see outside the window and prepare the best you can.

Happy Gardening

Dianna Wiklund ��

FBG Garden Coordinator

Year-to-Date Harvest - 11326.75 pounds

Volunteer Hours - 3498.5

Transplant Starts - 2730

Thank you for your generosity of time.

Upcoming Events

Click for full monthly calendar of opportunities - gardening, harvesting, gleaning…

(Located on the front page of FoodBankGrowers.org website.)

October 17th - Farm to Fork Harvest Dinner
Come out and see us at our booth.
August - October, Gleaning begins
If you’d like to be a gleaner of backyard orchards this year, learn more HERE and sign up to get email notifications of upcoming picks.

Volunteers Needed for:

Garden Managers -- Each garden needs a point person -- someone who can point to what to do next… This year we're partnering new Garden Managers with experienced ones for every step. Between them, Dianna, and the Monthly "to dos", you'll have everything you need to produce baskets full of produce.

Growers - - Learn how to grow fresh food for the Food Banks while learning how to grow food for yourself at home. We guarantee the every day you'll learn something new. All gardens will need help -- the more volunteers, the easier and more fun the work becomes. Go to the MAP SECTION of the website and locate a garden near you. Stay at one, or rotate through many. Hours differ by garden.

Harvesters - Each garden will need harvesters to pick and prepare the produce for the Food Bank distribution. Hours differ by garden.

GLEANERS! The season has started and the plums are perfect. Volunteer at at PTgleaning@gmail.com for donating a fruit tree’s fruit or gleaning.

VOLUNTEER HERE

MONSTER tomatoes

Sun, 24 Sep 2023 19:31:05 GMT

They are possible in the PNW

9-24-03

Check out those 'Maders!

Swan Garden volunteer (and horticulturist) Claire Farringer displays a sampling of the tomatoes grown at Swan. Many of the tomato plants were started and gifted to us by Master Gardener Tim O’Neill . (Thanks again, Tim!) These tomatoes were started in Tim’s greenhouse and planted outside at Swan in June.

The wrinkled toms are Zapotec , which I personally had never heard of before. There are still a ton of green toms that I hope will either be ripened on the vine or through other means before the season comes to an end. When I was at Quimper Grange last week, I saw Barbara [Tusting] had hung tomato branches with fruit on them upside down in the hoop house.

(pictured below)

Submitted by Suzanne Eggleston, Swan Garden Co-Manager.

Celebrating Barbara and Jo

Thu, 21 Sep 2023 02:02:04 GMT

... and 10 years of Food Bank Gardening at the Grange

9/19/23

Last Saturday on a blue fall day, magic happened as friends joined in "harmony"(?) to honor Barbara Tusting and Jo Yount for their relentless years of service and leadership to the Grange Food Bank Garden now completeing its 10th year of production. Thank you, Thank You, THANK YOU Barbara and Jo for keeping the community in fresh veggies and providing the mentoring to help volunteers learn, gain confidence, and become successful gardeners.

The tribute came at the start of the celebration via the Quimper Grange Garden-Aires , a local band of outstanding talent and sincere intentions. You know you are loved when your fellow volunteers write and perform a song in your honor.

(Above) Mary Beth Haralovich, Mary Gabe Paxton, Ralph Baker, JJ Johnson, and Bill LeMaster debut in a sure to top the billboard charts -- Born to Bundle (schoop, schoop).

(Below) Bill and JJ provide solo breakout performances.

For a LIVE rendition of BORN TO BUNDLE go here. For the lyrics, see below and be sure to schoop schoop along.

Working in the garden

My hands covered in dirt

Garden tells me when and how to work

All year long

We grow, gather, and give

All year long

So all can better live

(Chorus)

We were born to bundle, (schoop schoop)

We were born to bundle... (bass run)

Wash our hands

Wash the pots

Sanitize clippers, clean the bins

Ready to harvest

Gardeners on the go

We get to the garden

What shall we do

We look tward the white board

we KNOW what to do.

We water, we mulch

We toss manure too

We add Jo's worm dirt

And make a compost stew.

(Chorus)

Weeding and seeding

Maintenance too

Rain or shine

It's what we do

(Chorus)

Pole beans

Bush Beans

Fava beans too

Snap peas

Snow peas

All for you...

Rhurbarb

Onions

Carrots, squash, and peas

Dirt under my nails

Dirt on my knees

(Chorus

We pick and clean

Trim, weight and log

We bundle 'em up

and move 'em along.

For ten years now

We grow, gather, and give

All year long

So all can better live

(Chorus)

PTSD/FBG Farm Tour 2023

Wed, 20 Sep 2023 01:54:53 GMT

A perfect fall weekend for showing off the PT High School and Salish Coast gardens

9-19-2003

It was a great weekend to introduce the FULL K-12 PT School District Farm-to-Fork program and their corresponding FBG support system of growers and gleaners.

(Above) Candice Cosler who first imagined and championed the program in 2008 is seen up to her knees in squash and marigolds at the new Salish Coast Production Garden . It is the last in a series starting with the establishment of the PTHS Production/Culinary Garden in 2008, the Blue Heron 70 tree Orchard in 2012, and the Salish Classroom Garden that started/stopped/started again when the new Salish Coast School replaced the Grant Street school.

With all four gardens in place, students can learn to love what they eat, and grow it for themselves at every grade level. The one dish that all students love? "Pesto!", said Food Services Director Shannon Minnihan , "Even the first graders like it."

Folks also learned how the Food Bank Growers and Gleaners provide volunteer hours and stability to gardens that don't stop growing just because school is out for summer. Veggie surplus that doesn't go directly into school meals or freezer goes to the Food Banks. The Gleaners also provide a steady flow of fruit to the school district meals.

The PT High School garden was open only on Saturday. Former PTSD Food Services Director Stacey Larsen and Master Gardener Doug Van Allen spoke with folks touring from Kitsap who were excited about the school gardens. They also chatted up former volunteers who loved seeing how the gardens have expanded. Lys Burden and Kathy Ryan also greeted guests.

The Salish Coast Classroom and Production gardens were open both Saturday and Sunday and benefited from being on a main road between two other featured farms. Most of the attendees were neighbors who “have been driving/walking/biking by for the past couple years" and wanted to see the inner workings.

Farmer Neil Howe answered questions on Saturday and Garden Teacher Leta Fetherolf and Shannon Minnihan fielded questions on Sunday. Volunteers, Milly Lierman, Keith Lierman, Erik Livingstone, Bonnie Obremski, Mike Farrell, and Mary Hunt also answered questions with the support of FBG Garden Coordinator, Dianna Wiklund.

Those who toured were stunned at how much produce comes out of the garden, over 2000 pounds since Memorial Day. Daily the produce is turned into 750 meals.

A big thank you to all farmers, administrators, teachers, cooks, and volunteers who have been working to bring this program to maturity. We're excited to see where it's growing next!

Working up a Storm…

Thu, 31 Aug 2023 15:09:37 GMT

Salish Coast Work Party Is blessed with a downpour of help and rain.

(above left) Eric, Milly, and Candice freshen up the beds with new top soil. (above) Milly, Candice, Leta, Lee, Brad, Neil, Calder, and Eric grab a nosh out of the rain.

8/29/23

Thank you. Thank You. THANK YOU!

Kevin, Lindsay, Hilary, Eve, Lynn, Milly, Keith, Eric, Lee, Brad, Mike, Bonnie, Mary, and Candice put in overtime on Tuesday to shine up the Salish Coast Elementary Production and Classroom gardens with managers Neil and Leta... Then the sky opened up and POURED everything it's been holding back for three months.

The next day Mike, Keith, and Neil assembled a Root Washer to make pounds of carrots, beets, and potatoes kitchen ready. Arriving soon is a cardboard perforating machine to turn the school's deluge of boxes into "brown" compost to balance off the "green" compost coming from the garden.

Parents and students can walk through the results at the August 31 Back-to-School open house. The gardens will also be open to the public during the Farm Tour on September 16 and 17.

Goosefoot Free Veggie Boxes Feed Community

Thu, 31 Aug 2023 01:58:00 GMT

One Box. Lots of Love. Goosefoot Farm demonstrates alternative models to increase food access.

It's Goosefoot Farm's fifth year of growing — starting from one dedicated 100 foot row, to 1.3 acres with two hoop houses. So far this year, they’ve given away over 3,700 pounds of fresh vegetables.

While most of the produce ends up at the Tri-Area Food Bank, a portion of the harvest goes towards 27 CSA boxes for Goosefoot's partners at Jefferson Healthcare and Jefferson County Anti-Racist Fund (JCARF).

Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA, was started as an alternative socioeconomic system where consumers could support farmers at the beginning of the year in exchange for a regular box of produce over the growing season. It’s become a popular model for individuals and families to receive a weekly variety of fresh vegetables, new and familiar.

The Jefferson Healthcare CSA program works similarly to the VegRx program – oncology patients get “prescribed” a share to facilitate their access to fresh, nutritious vegetables.

The Jefferson Anti-Racist Fund CSA is part of their community-supported reparations and mutual aid work, and shares are for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, regardless of income. JCARF adds other local goods to the veggie shares, including flower bouquets, meat, dairy, bread, herbal remedies and more.

Goosefoot Farm managers Lex, Sam , and Alexa are proud to be one of the contributing farms to JCARF’s CSA program, as well as the only current contributor to the Jefferson Healthcare CSA. These programs have received a lot of positive feedback, with recipients saying they feel healthier and more connected to community. The CSAs can be a less stigmatized approach to free food access, and can reach a different demographic of people than the food bank.

Goosefoot Farm also donates produce to the Recovery Cafe in Port Townsend, which is a drug- and alcohol-free space for people in any stage of addiction recovery.

Located at Finnriver Cidery in Chimacum, Goosefoot Farm operates with a paid staff of seven people during the summer high months, the help of many wonderful volunteers, and the support from countless local organizations and community members.

It's a wonderful mix of a growing mission meeting a growing concern for food security, community health, and racial justice. Our thanks to all who help make this happen!

For more info, contact goosefootfarm.wa@gmail.com .

A Swan Song of a Harvest

Mon, 21 Aug 2023 22:18:07 GMT

Swoon worthy produce

8-20-23

If "pictures say 1000 words..." here are 3000 words of pride in accomplishment and 1000 words of How to Grow Beans at Swan Farm.

Top Left: LeeAnn McMillen with some of the beautifully colored bush beans she planted at Swan (there may be a few poles in there as well)

Above: Hilary Newell serves up trays full of nutrition you can savor instead of eating a pill out of a bottle -- just basil and parsley chopped into your meal could provide the daily need for Vitamin K. Here she is showcasing the herbs grown at Swan: dill, sage, parsley, basil, thyme, and tarragon.

Below: Swan Co-Garden Manager, Susanne Eggleson, shows off a new crop for them this year: round zucchini. They planted them after hearing Food Bank customers wanted smaller squas h.

Below: Bean trellis built from dumpster diving for rims at the Recyclery — lots of room for those loooooong Fortex beans! Does that make it a RE-Recyclery?

Winner Winner. Veggie Dinner!

Sat, 12 Aug 2023 20:54:29 GMT

Salish Coast Garden wins the Premier Exhibitor Award

There is something endearing and validating about winning a blue ribbon at the County Fair. What if you won 31 blue ribbons, 7 red ribbons, and the Exhibitor Award!?! Kudos isn't enough, but... KUDOS to farmer Neil Howe , teacher Leta Fetherolf , and the FBG volunteers (Milly, Keith, Erik, Jill, and Mary) for bringing the Salish Coast garden along so quickly.

The FBG mission is to grow, gather, and give. Along with that we teach people how to grow it themselves as they work side-by-side in the gardens. We're very hands on that way... Considering the results the new Salish Coast garden is generating, our mission has a new high bar of excellence to surpass. While most of the produce goes directly into school lunches the excess is going the the Food Banks. Another win. win.

Come see for yourself at the Salish Coast Open House, August 31, 5-7:30 or during the Farm Tour. It's on the corner of Discovery and Grant streets.

Below is a collection of the ribbon winners.

(above left) Photo of Neil Howe by Ross Pruden

Gleaning Bags - Where Fashion meets Function

Wed, 09 Aug 2023 16:31:51 GMT

Thank you Paula Vanderheul!

8/8/23

If you have ever have been at the top of a 10 foot ladder, picking apples and juggling grocery bags or boxes you brought from home, you'll appreciate the huge gift that longtime gleaning volunteer, Paul Vanderheul, gave to all Gleaners -- heavy duty, washable, and sized (S/M/L) gleaning bags. You can use Paula's pattern instructions below.

Paula (shown above) is a quilter. A few years back she was gifted a load of heavy fabric so she went to work and started making bags... and bags... and bags... beautiful and fitting every sized body. She's happy to share the fabric with others who would like to make their own. Contact us at foodbankgrowers@gmail.com and we let her know.

Above, notice how the bag is a bit higher on one side than the other. That makes the bag snug into your waist and also makes the opening more open. It's one less thing to have to manage while picking apples, or beans, or getting dog toys collected around the house. They are seriously useful bags.

GLEANING BAG DIRECTION S

Cut a Fabric piece (20". 18". 17*) wide by (41", 40", 38*) length.

Strap should be 5"(3") wide by (46", 42", 38") length making a 2.5" (1") finished strap.

Make a 3" (2") cuff at each end of the length by folding the right side of fabric to the wrong side of fabric. Fold or press a 1/4" seam allowance. Press.

Top stitch folded cuffs. Topstitched both edges lengths on each cuff.

Fold right sides together with the back and front cuffs just meeting. Pin sides at lower cuff. The largest size should measure about 14" deep when folded and back about 16.5" high or so when folded.

Then Zigzag along raw edges from the total length of each side top to bottom to stop loose ends.

Next Sew the same sides seams with a 1/2" seams together. Reenforce a second seam with a 1/4" seam. Makes a sturdy seam.

Then make a boxed corners inside bottom and attached it to the side seams. Use a ruler to make a line 2 1/2" up from bottom crosswise aligned with side seam. Then sew on that seam line. The fold the boxed triangle on the sewn line up along the side seam. Pin and sew it to the side to anchor it.

Turn right side out and attach strap.

The straps have 1/4" pressed seam allowance along the long sides. I/4" at top and bottom. Then fold in half to topstitch all the way around the strap. Or design it your way.

Fold the top back side cuff along the length of stitched 1/2" seam to inside.

Place the strap on the folded edges and extended just above the front bottom cuff, and secure a top stitch box to finish the bag.

High Harvest Snapshots

Wed, 09 Aug 2023 15:29:12 GMT

It's Our Edible Artform!

8/8/23

It's August and the gardens are doing what we planned for them to do back in February. Just look at the amount, the shape, the COLOR!

Featured top left is the PTHS garden haul for the week at 154 pounds out of a 10,000 square foot garden. (That's about 1/4 acre if you're wondering...) Some of this went to the PT School district for processing and some went to the PT Food Bank.

Next up is Swan Garden's 156 pounds of goodness ready for delivery to the Tri-Area Food Bank.

Below is the long awaited for Red Bull onions from Red Hen Garden. One seed packet (sown in February) produced 16 pounds of jewels out of a 5x5 foot bed. They wowed the volunteers at Tri-Area food bank.

Yes, our work is dirty and takes many, MANY hours of volunteer effort, but when the results are so plentiful, pretty, and nutritious it's all worth it.

NOTE to Garden Managers: Send new harvest pics and info to the FoodBankGrowers@gmail.

Newsletter August 2023

Sat, 05 Aug 2023 21:27:35 GMT

What a tasty season

In this Issue...

In the Garden this month…
Year-to-Date Harvest Numbers
On the Calendar - Upcoming Events
Recent Postings
How to Volunteer

In the Garden this August - By Dianna Wiklund, FBG Garden Coordinator

The temperature for August will be slightly warmer than average. The local average for August is a high of 70° and a low of 55° F. It is not looking like we will be setting any records. The rain forecast will be average as well which means not much if any. This is our driest month. Irrigation is a must, especially to get our fall/winter garden going.

August is mainly about harvesting and preserving. FBG’s focus is on harvesting/gathering in what we have planted and giving to people so they can preserve and use it. For those who want to have more information about preserving the harvest - WSU extension has many pamphlets with research based and tested recipes available, most are free. https://pubs.extension.wsu.edu/consumer-food-safety (Follow the links from: health and wellness; consumer food safety; canning and freezing.) WSU has also recommended “The USDA Guide to Home Canning”, “So Easy to Preserve” and “The Ball Blue Book”.

Garden tasks:

Harvest: This is when my beans really get going. I harvest green beans every other day throughout the month. You can harvest some new potatoes but remember they will only keep for about a week. Early potatoes may be ready soon. Once the plant dies back, stop watering for two weeks before harvesting to allow the skins to toughen up a bit.
Mulch: Remember to mulch well under your winter squash. A layer of straw can help keep weeds down, soil moist, and keep your squash up out of the dirt.
Pollination : I have found I have better luck with my squash if I hand pollinate. Take the stamen from the male flower and apply the pollen to the female. This also reduces cross pollination. Don’t forget squash blossoms are very tasty.
Plant: From seed: lettuce, spinach, other salad greens, turnips for greens, beets, carrots, green bunching onions, overwintering cabbage. We can start transplanting out starts from last month ( keep them moist). Fall veggies are sown in early August and overwintering in late August.
Cover crops: If you are not replanting areas you have fully harvested then it is time to think about cover crops. Some cover crops can be partially harvested like the tendril of the field peas. Think about what your soil needs to be healthy next year. Do you need to break up clay soil with daikon radishes? Do you need to get nitrogen into your soil with legumes and clover? Are you looking for a green manure to turn in early next spring to bulk up your organic matter? Do you want a beneficial insect crop like calendula? Remember to think about your crop rotation when cover cropping. Don’t plant brassicas like mustard where your cabbages were or are going to be next year. Don’t overdo nitrogen where you are planning to plant beans and peas as you will get a poor fruit set.

Happy Gardening!

Have questions/comments?

Dianna can be reached at: FBGgardencoordinator@gmail.com

Year-to-Date Harvest - 3,175 pounds

2729 Volunteer hours

This month’s star garden is Salish Coast Elementary harvesting 513 pounds in July for the PT School District. Drive by the Discovery/Grant road corner and see for yourself.

Upcoming Events

Click for full monthly calendar of opportunities - gardening, harvesting, gleaning…

(Located on the front page of FoodBankGrowers.org website.)

August 20th, All County Picnic at HJ Carroll Park
Come out and see us at our booth - 11-4pm
August - October, Gleaning begins
If you’d like to be a gleaner of backyard orchards this year, learn more HERE and sign up to get email notifications of upcoming picks.

Recent Postings on FoodBankGrowers.org

Welcome to FBG Salish Coast Elementary School

Just 'Fork it!

Raspberry Rescue

Cherry Tasting Petunias?

Garlic Math - How many do you need?

Volunteers Needed for:

Garden Managers -- Each garden needs a point person -- someone who can point to what to do next… This year we're partnering new Garden Managers with experienced ones for every step. Between them, Dianna, and the Monthly "to dos", you'll have everything you need to produce baskets full of produce.

Growers - - Learn how to grow fresh food for the Food Banks while learning how to grow food for yourself at home. We guarantee the every day you'll learn something new. All gardens will need help -- the more volunteers, the easier and more fun the work becomes. Go to the MAP SECTION of the website and locate a garden near you. Stay at one, or rotate through many. Hours differ by garden.

Harvesters - Each garden will need harvesters to pick and prepare the produce for the Food Bank distribution. Hours differ by garden.

Gleaning starts mid August. (gleaning makes use of fruit that otherwise would drop to the ground and feed the deer.) Send an email to get on the notification list. ptgleaning@gmail.com Also needed are tree checkers for ripe fruit.

Writers - Could you talk about plants all day? Put it in writing. You write. We'll post.

VOLUNTEER HERE

Garlic Math

Tue, 01 Aug 2023 20:52:46 GMT

How many bulbs do you need?

When FBG gardeners have extra seeds, amendments, bulk soil... we share the excess with others in the group. This month Brian's garden had an excess of garlic bulbs and offered them to the crowd. Cool. But how many is enough?

Garden Coordinator, Dianna Wiklund to the rescue who did the math and came up with this rough way to calculate your needs.

She figured on the low side so there will likely be more.

6 large cloves per bulb*
9 bulbs per pound = 54 planted cloves
( I went out and weighed some of my dry garlic)
plant about 5 " apart.
54 x 5 = 270" of garden row 22.5 foot row
10 lbs would be 225 foot row

Start planning now and plant them out in October for a July 2024 harvest.

* While there may be more than six cloves per bulb, always plant the largest for the best blubs the following year.

Do Cherry Petunias Taste Like Cherries?

barbaratusting97@gmail.com (Barbara Tusting ) — Wed, 26 Jul 2023 22:30:29 GMT

Edible vs. Eatable Flowers - Q & A

When we heard from a reliable source (Mary H) that there was a petunia that tasted just like cherries, we just had to try to grow some. Mary bought a packet of infinitesimally tiny petunia seeds, and Mary Beth started them at home, transplanting to hanging pots at Quimper Grange Food Bank Garden.

Then, the moment of truth. The first gorgeous purple flower bloomed. JJ, Mary Beth and Barbara sacrificed themselves in the interest of science (and food) and sampled the flowers. After several seconds of chewing and rolling the petals over their collective tongues, the verdict: "It tastes like something," JJ said sagely. Edible, not eatable. But ever so lovely!

Raspberry Rescue

Wed, 26 Jul 2023 03:43:39 GMT

Chicken Little: "Oh no! It's raining on our raspberries! What to do. Whatever to do?

Get busy, you dumb cluck!

On Tuesday, when rain fell (thankfully) on Jefferson County, it ... complicated ... things. Wet raspberries quickly turn into moldy raspberries. At the Quimper Grange FBG garden , garden manager Barbara Tusting quickly gathered six pounds of luscious, market-ready fruit and (necessity being the mother of invention) placed it tilted south in a hoop house, then directed a fan across the harvest. The result? A load of raspberries headed out to food banks tomorrow!

It's just a snapshot of the creative thinking and devotion to building community resilience that happens every day among the Food Bank Growers. Why not join the team and become part of the solution?

Submitted by Mark Paxton

Just 'Fork it!

Mon, 24 Jul 2023 21:56:00 GMT

But don't turn it over...

7-24-2023

(Left) Suzanne Eggleston broadforks weedy soil. Photo by LeaAnn McMillen.

To encourage soil health, function and stability, consider putting the rototiller aside and instead picking up a broadfork. This simple gardening tool efficiently loosens soil without flipping it upside down like a rototiller would. As a result the bacteria, fungi and earthworms working below the surface are minimally disturbed, and soil structure is maintained.

In one short but effective video , Ray Archulet, retired NRCS soil scientist and founder of Understanding Ag and the Soil Health Academy, places two samples of the same soil type into water. The first sample has been tilled for 30 years and one hasn’t been tilled in more than 40 years.

As the tilled soil rapidly breaks apart in the water, Archulet says, “The biotic glues and organic matter have burned up by tillage. The soil pores have collapsed.” He then turns to the no-till soil which does not dissolve in the water. “The pore spaces are still intact.”

The broadfork has been used successfully in several weed-choked, compacted beds at Swan Farm . After vegetation was first cut down, a crew member would stand on the crossbar with his or her full body weight, sink the tines deep into the bed, and then loosen the soil by working the long handlebars back and forth in a kind of rowing motion. The broadfork is then moved back about a foot, and sunk back into the soil again, starting the process again.

Weed roots were then easy to remove with a rake. After composting, new crops were planted.

Broadforking may not be the solution for all gardening situations. But it many settings, it can help reduce soil erosion, maintain root channels to better facilitate water infiltration and storage, and retain organic matter in the top several inches of the soil.

As Archulet says in many of his presentations, “Farmers and ranchers, it’s our job to work with nature…your soils, ladies and gentlemen, are alive!”

Submitted by Suzanne Eggleston

Welcome Salish Coast Elementary School to FBG

Wed, 19 Jul 2023 16:01:15 GMT

Where fresh food is "banked" and grows interest in veggie gardening

July 15, 2023

A brand new garden, Salish Coast Elementary, has joined the Food Bank Growers in a growing, gathering, and giving partnership. In this case the majority of the giving will go directly into the Port Townsend School system with the excess going to the nearby PT Food Bank or the Recovery Cafe.

If you drive by the corner of Discovery and Grant streets, you'll see a huge hoop house next to Salish Coast Elementary filled with tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers. Outside are pounds of peas growing, squash, lettuce, kale, cabbage, broccoli, beans, fruit trees... and so much more to be added. In just 45 days the land was converted from soil to hand-turned raised beds flourishing in produce.

Directly east of it is a teaching garden where students get their first taste, touch, smell, look... at what makes a garden grow.

Farmer Neil Howe is putting his years of bio-dynamic farming skills to use designing the space for productive rows, creating the beginnings of an espalier orchard along the fences, and packing the hoop house soil with heat loving veggies.

Neil had the help of many volunteers donating over 60 hours of time getting the rows raised, planting starts, building infrastructure, and now - HARVESTING! Over 100 pounds so far have gone into the Salish Coast kitchen where he and Port Townsend School Food Director, Shannon Minnihan are converting the goods immediately into lunch for summer students or putting up for later use.

There will be a longer article soon on the full history of this system which includes the teaching garden run by Leta Fetherolf and how these gardens lead to the Blue Heron Middle School Orchard and finally to the PT High School garden and classes.

Welcome Salish Coast. We'll all be watching with interest to see how this garden grows.

Newsletter July 2023

Thu, 06 Jul 2023 19:27:03 GMT

Tomato season has arrived!

In this Issue...

In this issue:

Garden Tasks
July 2023 Year-to-Date Harvest
Where did the Harvest Go?
Recent Postings
Become a Harvester/Grower

In the Garden this Month

Again the forecast is for slightly warmer and drier for the month of July. Remember our average temps in July run from a low of 55 to a high of 70. So we will need a bit more watering and mulching, but it shouldn’t be too hot to work in the mornings.

As we pull out our garlic, lettuce, and other completed crops it is time to start planting our fall crops. Getting in more greens, beets, brassicas and remembering to cover crop any area not intended to be planted right now. A quick growing green manure crop where you plan to plant this fall's garlic could give it a great start in October.

Mulching to keep the ground moist and watering enough but not too much about 1” per week for most crops. It is time to start watering the potatoes a bit but not too much. They should have most of the hilling done. Once the flowers die back you can start harvesting a few new potatoes around the edges.

Garden Tasks:

Harvest. Garlic comes out this month and must be cured in a warm place out of direct sunlight with good air circulation. Curing takes about two weeks. Then you can bag or braid it.

Mulch under squash plants to help keep weeds down and keep the squash off the dirt. Also around bean plants and brassicas.

Planting. You can plant a new batch of greens (lettuces) in the garden in the shade of taller plants so it doesn’t get too hot now, but will get more sun in the fall as you harvest the tall things such as corn and pole beans.

It is also time to plant overwintering brassicas — cabbage and cauliflower for spring harvest and sprouting broccoli.

Now is when biannual and perennial herbs are sown. Getting them off to a good start before winter so they are ready for harvest next spring.

It is also tomato pinching time. Thin out the lower suckers and brown leaves to increase air circulation.

Sow overwintering onions this year. They are sown the last couple of weeks in July for a spring harvest. I haven’t tried this but it would be nice to have fresh onions in the spring.

Have questions/comments?

Dianna can be reached at: FBGgardencoordinator@gmail.com

JULY 2023 Year-to-Date Harvest

2074.95 pounds (1726.75 volunteer hours)

This year we are also distributing excess starts to new homes over 1400 plants so far are getting a fresh start in a home garden.

Where did the Harvest go?

Port Townsend Food Bank has received over 1,000 pounds.
Tri Area Food Bank has received over 880 pounds
Quilcene Food Bank has received 46.5 pounds
Brinnon Food Bank has received 17.5 pounds
Coyle Pop up has received 8.25 pounds
Eaglemount Pop up has received 8.75 pounds

If you have extra produce to donate, any of these Food Banks would be glad to get them. I would suggest we focus our giving on those who are currently receiving less. Look at the FBG Calendar for drop off dates and details.

If you have questions about what, where or when to donate/produce you can contact Dianna Wiklund at FBGgardencoordinator@gmail.com .

We Need HARVESTERS!!!

The season has arrived — Each garden will need harvesters to pick and prepare the produce for the FoodBank distribution. Hours differ by garden. “Gleaning” will start later in August.

And we need Growers — Learn how to grow fresh food for the Food Banks while learning how to grow food for yourself at home. We guarantee the every day you'll learn something new. All gardens will need help -- the more volunteers, the easier and more fun the work becomes. Go to the MAP SECTION of the website and locate a garden near you. Hours differ by garden.

VOLUNTEER HERE

Less Work. More Production

Sat, 24 Jun 2023 19:23:16 GMT

Until...

6-22-23

The Red Hen Garden has been through a lot of changes trying to find its sweet spot - the first year was about re-building 15-year old raised beds that were collapsing. Year two we doubled its size and added a compost bin and irrigation. In year three it was about trying lots of varieties to see what would grow best under its limited light situation.

(LEFT) Kevin with monster purple snow peas.

What worked?

#1 -- The volunteers!

Week after week they brought their expertise and backs to the job. The team of mostly Kala Point X-pats welcomed all garden newbies and oldsters cross-training each other in the art of earth and harvest. Thank you Red Hen class of '23 Pete, Hilary, Lindsay, Mary, Char, Christine, Kevin, Eve, Eric, Sharon and alumni garden starter - Lys.

Lots of new, wormy and delicious soil.

We learned that additives help, but good ol' guano in any form helps the most. A square inch of bio-activated soil has billions of micro-critters transporting nutrition to the roots since plants don’t have hands and mouths to do the work. No critters. No transport.

Plant shade tolerant plants.

Red Hen lives in a hole between Cedars and Douglas Fir, as the trees are growing, the amount of sun per day is shrinking on any section of the garden. Plants that can thrive in 3-4 hours of direct sun are required -- lettuce, brassicas, beans, peas, and herbs.

Use "row cover" netting.

Last year the cabbage butterflies and their crawling children had their way. This year we discovered reusable row cover weight netting it lets light and rain in, but keeps insects out.

Until…

VOLES!! They aren't stupid.

They've decided to set up a subterranean condo system under one deli bed of beans. Week-by-week, 8 inch high bean plants are being dragged below to feed the kids. A trap line is working, but the damage has been done. Always overplant and offset what the voles, crows, bugs eat. Try interplanting with onions as that seems to put off the flying pests.

SHADE

We were ecstatic to see the peas growing so fast and tall but then heading non-stop for the clouds. They were to top off at 6 feet and now "orchard picking ladders" are needed to harvest them. Why did this happen? We're guessing lack of sun is to blame. Just like seedlings get leggy if they don't have enough light, these plants are got looking for the light. The solution? Plant the shortest varieties for the next go around.

The Red Hen Motto lives on... Just Keep Planting!

Thank you, Lino Rivera

Fri, 23 Jun 2023 18:45:55 GMT

A superb tribute to Art & Earth

Pianist Lino Rivera presented a program he called "Saintly and Earthly" at the Trinity United Methodist Church Candlelight Concert Series on Thursday, June 22.

Watch the full performance here.

Rivera, a member of the faculty at St. Mary's College in California, won his first national piano competition when he was just 8 years old. The son of farmers in the Philippines, Rivera selected Food Bank Growers as the beneficiary of his performance, and half of the gate proceeds will go toward sustaining Jefferson County residents with fresh, organic produce donated by FBG to area food banks. For Rivera, the choice of FBG was easy, he said, citing his close boyhood ties to feeding others.

The concert featured works by Bach, Liszt, Beethoven and Schubert.

Swan Gardens is Lifting Off!

Sat, 10 Jun 2023 22:31:49 GMT

Water Towers and Covers are Working

The Food Bank Growers' Swan Farms garden in Port Hadlock is bursting with the vibrancy that only comes from a thriving, organic operation. Approaching the garden this week (pictured above) the first thing that strikes a visitor is flowers. But flowers are important to a garden, both for the good vibrations they bring to gardeners and for the benefit of pollinators. More pollinators = more veggies!

Ever wonder about floating row covers, and why bother? (pictured above) They can keep unwanted insects at bay while providing a warmer, wind-free microclimate. These squash are already beginning to produce during the first week of June. With plants like squash, it's vital that the covers come off when the bloom comes on, because that lets pollinators do their thing.

See that festive red plastic surrounding the cages of this batch of tomatillos? (pictured above) The plastic functions as a tiny greenhouse for each plant. These plants are native to Mexico, and they like heat! The fruits are the size of small plums, surrounded by a papery husk. The bright, tart flavor of the fruits is almost citrusy. Besides becoming the main ingredient in salsas, tomatillos deserve more attention in our kitchens, and they are packed with nutrition.

We don't grow all vegetables for their fruits (pictured above), but also their leaves and roots. This cabbage is approaching harvest time. Look at those leaves! Any vegetables in the vast cabbage family are a target for the white butterflies that lay their eggs on them. As the eggs hatch, the result is a Swiss cheese network of holes that their caterpillars munch through the leaves. But not this one. A simple drape of lightweight netting keeps them at bay, and gives the harvest great curb appeal.

There is a lot of innovation going on in all the Food Bank Growers' gardens. To learn more, become part of the solution! Volunteer!

Submitted by Mark Paxton

The Co-op (secret) Garden

Mon, 05 Jun 2023 09:56:22 GMT

Tiny can be mighty productive

The next time you're at the Co-op, grab a sandwich and go to the patio area on the east side of the building. There you can enjoy the sun and the tiny garden view. Tucked behind the ornamental garden is a deer proofed Food Bank garden where the spinach was just harvested and the peas and Napa cabbage are taking off.

Garden Manager, Ruth Blyther does a terrific job of showing just how much can be beautifully grown on a bit of land.

Newsletter June 2023

Mon, 05 Jun 2023 03:01:17 GMT

Time to thin out crops for a bigger harvest

In this Issue...

In the Garden this month…
Year-to-Date Harvest Numbers
On the Calendar - Upcoming Events
Recent Postings
Welcome New Growers

In the Garden this Month - By Dianna Wiklund, FBG Garden Coordinator

It is looking like June will be slightly warmer than normal and probably slightly drier too. Not as much “June Gloom” as we are used to. So with that in mind, and looking ahead to a summer with a similar forecast, we can start planning our fall/winter gardens. Take a look at what will be coming out and what we can replace it with. For those of us who have gotten a slower start this year, looking at what we can plant now that will handle the summer heat for a fall harvest.

Succession planting continues putting out starts and direct sowing. Remember some of our seeds won't germinate over 80 degrees. We now need to find cooler places for starts that will be transplanted later. Brassicas are especially sensitive to heat and prefer a cooler starting temperature. Remember to remove cloches as your plants grow, they look silly and don’t do as well when they grow out the tops. Also the leaves touching the sides gather moisture and can decompose a bit if they don’t get free moving air.

Keep up on your slug patrols and remember they like to spend their days under soaker hoses and drip lines anywhere it is moist. Mulching to maintain moisture is important now and throughout the summer so keeping an eye on moisture levels will give you a chance to check for slugs too. I carry a slug container with me as I wander through my garden checking to see which beds need water.

Garden tasks:

Hill potatoes! Start when they are about 6” tall then hill 2”, when they grow above that hill another 2”... keep going until the seed potato is 12” under. You can use straw/leaves/mulch for the last 6”.
Harvest should begin on our berries as well as peas. Continue harvesting greens and herbs. (The people using the food banks are really loving all the greens coming in and the fresh herbs have been a treat.)
It is not too late to start Beans and Squash or add to what you already have growing.
Late June you can start Beets, Swiss Chard, Carrots, Celery, Corn, Green and Pearl Onion, as well as more Brassicas.
You can start more heat hardy varieties of greens in the cooler parts of your garden. Try on the shady side of your taller plants or under bean/pea tripods.
Just a reminder to water your tomatoes with warm (not hot) water, 80 - 90 degrees seems about right.
It is also time and maybe past time to put our codling moth and apple maggot traps out. I won’t thin my new fruit until after the “June drop” so wait for July for that. It has been nice to see pollinators in my orchard again.

Have questions/comments?

Dianna can be reached at: FBGgardencoordinator@gmail.com

Year-to-Date 2023 Harvest

1444.20 pounds

1469.75 volunteer hours

Lettuces and brassicas are beginning to come in, while lighter in pounds, they are heavy in nutrition and appreciated at all Food Banks and Pop Up Food Banks.

Upcoming Events

Click for full monthly calendar of opportunities - gardening, harvesting, gleaning…

(Located on the front page of FoodBankGrowers.org website.)

June 4, 2023 Apple Thinning at the Blue Heron Orchard
This is a once-a-year necessity for a healthy crop. Bring clippers or good kitchen shears for thinning. We will have buckets for apples.
Contact Seth at PTGleaning@gmail.com
June 11, 2023 FBG at the Chimacum Farmer’s Market
Come talk to us between 9:15 and 2:00

Recent Postings on FoodBankGrowers.org

Alice’s Garden - Black is the New Green

Wire Worms Infest Brian’s Garden

Three Little Pigs Recycle PGFB

Salish Work Party brings in many hats

Kale On! (Recipes galore)

The Evolution of Brian’s Garden

The Companions You Choose

Welcome New Growers!

Peter Gillis, Eve Epstein, Judy Romano,

Dave Sterritt, Angeline Lee, Erik Livingstone

Volunteers Needed for:

Garden Managers -- Each garden needs a point person -- someone who can point to what to do next… This year we're partnering new Garden Managers with experienced ones for every step. Between them, Dianna, and the Monthly "to dos", you'll have everything you need to produce baskets full of produce.

Growers - - Learn how to grow fresh food for the Food Banks while learning how to grow food for yourself at home. We guarantee the every day you'll learn something new. All gardens will need help -- the more volunteers, the easier and more fun the work becomes. Go to the MAP SECTION of the website and locate a garden near you. Hours differ by garden.

Harvesters - Each garden will need harvesters to pick and prepare the produce for the Food Bank distribution. Hours differ by garden. “Gleaning” will start later this summer.

Writers - Could you talk about plants all day? Put it in writing. You write. We'll post.

VOLUNTEER HERE

Thank you for your time, cash, or tools We are a small organization that puts all donations to work. Go HERE for more information.

The Companions You Choose

Thu, 01 Jun 2023 00:28:28 GMT

What are the best flower/veggie matches?

5-31-2023

Ornamental flowers and flowering herbs are so much more than pretty additions to the vegetable garden. These blooming companion plants can result in a healthier, more productive vegetable garden, and even eliminate the need for harsh pesticides and synthetic fertilizers.

At Swan Farm , two crew members have renovated garden beds to focus on herbs and flowers. The herbs chosen by LeeAnn and Claire are not only welcome additions to our dinner plates, but also serve to attract to bees and other pollinators.

They planted dill, sage, and chives to help increase pollinator activity, and contribute to increased harvest yields of fruiting plants like squash and cucumber. Dill, alyssum, and coriander were planted to attract ladybugs to keep aphid populations in check.

Marigolds, which attract bees and other pollinators, produce compounds in their root systems that may aid in killing non-beneficial nematodes in the soil. The Swan crew planted marigolds near tomatoes, cucumbers and squash.

Marigolds, along with cosmos and calendula, can attract parasitic wasps and hover flies that feed on cabbage loopers and other pests. These flowers have been planted near broccoli and other brassicas that are often targeted by caterpillars.

Nasturtiums naturally come up everywhere at Swan, but LeeAnn has planted several varieties to repel whiteflies, squash bugs, aphids, several beetles species, and cabbage loopers. The flower protects itself, as well as other plants, by emitting an airborne phytochemical that deters these bugs.

Beloved hummingbirds have not been forgotten in the garden. According to LeeAnn, sage, bee balm, catmint and scarlet runner plants have been planted for their pleasure.

To read more about companion planting, check out this resource from Oregon State University Extension.

Submitted by Suzanne Eggleston

Work Parties bring in Many Hats and Skills

Wed, 31 May 2023 21:27:51 GMT

Thank you volunteers who make our gardens grow!

5-29-23

While many were camping Memorial Weekend, teams of volunteer gardeners put on their hats and gloves and dug in. These special one-off sessions give the gardens a jumpstart on the summer.

First up on Monday was - Salish Coast Elementary Production garden where Farmer Neil Howe kept people busy. Friend of the garden, Bonnie Obremski , and PT School District Food Director, Shannon Minnihan , put out a call-to-action and 15 volunteers showed up with shovels and a lot of "can do". A newly donated picnic table quickly filled with trays of starts, water bottles, and tools.

A big thanks to Candace Mangold (pictured top left) Brook Weber, Bonnie Obremski , Linda Brooking, Mado Most and Diane DiPreet. (pictured above) Also helping out: Kathy Ryan, Amanda Millholland, Magi Adenau, Mary Hunt, Cole and Azalea Russell, Linda Brooking, and Jay McDowell.

Three hours of soil-toil and the entire production garden had rows ready for starts and the paths for alder chips. The work party came just in time as a multitude of plant starts are ready to go into the ground.

Production from the garden will go primarily to the PT School District with excess produce going to the Food Bank. It's the first in a series of farm-to-fork experiences for the kids. Once they get to the middle school they'll be able to taste the difference in fruit in their 70 tree orchard. Later at a highschool level, they can take cooking classes from the produce grown in their garden.

Keep watch for the next group work party; you'll meet new, fun folks and maybe gain a couple new skills

Kale on!

Wed, 31 May 2023 21:24:06 GMT

Plant once and pick all summer (and winter...)

If you lived in Italy, you'd grow and eat tomatoes.

If you lived in Peru, you'd grow and eat potatoes.

If you lived in Mexico, you'd grow and eat peppers.

But we live in the Pacific NW, and one of the things we can grow really well is KALE!

Unlike rhubarb that has a season and is done, Kale is an annual veggie that keeps on giving long into the cool of winter. No need to preserve, dry, or freeze unless you want to because fresh is available about 9 months out of the year.

Kale and its cousin Chard should always be an ingredient in your weekly meals. Here's a list from Insanely Good Recipes to get you started.

Stir fry, Smoothie, Chips, Soup, Salad, Side dish, Pasta, Pizza, Pesto... pancakes may go a step too far, but you never know.

If you're lucky enough to have an Instant Pot - add a bunch of kale greens to the pot, on top of the steam tray, 1/2 cup water or more to steam, and then set the pressure cooker to 1 minute. That's it. You'll be amazed at how perfectly it is cooked - bright green and ready to eat.

Get your vitamins straight from Mother Nature.

The Evolution of Brian's Garden

Wed, 31 May 2023 21:22:26 GMT

Lessons Learned and Improvements made.

May 30, 2023

Brian’s Food Bank Garden at Glaspell Farm is located in the middle of the San Juan Valley near Blue Heron Middle School off Olympic Avenue. Brian Glaspell cultivated it for many years as a large home garden, but he gave away most of his produce to neighbors and the Port Townsend Food Bank. Unfortunately, Brian passed away in early 2019, and his garden was untended until the summer of 2021, when it was shoulder-high in weeds. Jeanie Glaspell needed help with the farm, and especially with this garden, to maintain its vitality and productivity.

Low spots. Deer Fence that Works.

Killing weeds. Wire worms.

A small team of Food Bank Growers started by weed whacking the tall weeds and sheet mulching with cardboard and straw (left photo). We planted squash into the sheet mulch that year, but the transplants went in fairly late in the season. Some squash were ready to pick by mid-September, but a cold snap hit the valley, and this low spot had a killing frost. The crop was ruined, but we had a good lesson about temperature variation in valleys. We tarped the entire area in late November to try to kill the weed seed.

In March 2022, we finally removed the tarps, but all the rain that spring kept the soil saturated until April, when the only weeds that emerged were perennials, quack grass, field bindweed and thistles, oh my! The small team of workers spent most of the spring digging the rhizomes from huge patches of these weeds and managed another late planting of lettuce, brassicas, 5 squash plants and a sweet potato trial. We harvested over 500 pounds of produce (middle photo) for the Port Townsend Food Bank and learned that we also had another challenge, wireworms, that ruined the potato crops.

In March and April this year, we started prepping the rows and beds for planting, pruning the table grapes that grow on the perimeter fence and helped prune the adjacent orchard trees, also overgrown. Planting has been slow again, as we are still setting up this production garden for teamwork. A new shed and picnic table were donated, but had to be assembled, and we invested much labor in clearing an area for a port-o-let and helping Jeanie reinstall a second deer fence outside the garden fence. This 10-ft high fence encloses the entire farm, but needed to be repaired, especially along the garden and adjacent orchard. The double fence is very effective at excluding deer. We also set out wireworm traps to determine population density; it turned out to be quite high.

With long rows of peas, kale, chard, lettuce, spinach and radishes already planted (photo right), we are now clearing the remaining rows for the warmer crops of beans, squash, cucumbers and a couple trial tomato and green pepper plants. A new, wonderful team of 10 volunteers has been working at this garden, and these great gardeners have made the garden vital, productive, and a beautiful place to be again.

Submitted by Lys Burden

Alice's Garden - Black is the new Green

Mon, 22 May 2023 04:29:10 GMT

Salads were never more exotic

5-21-23

Have you ever tried black lettuce in your salad? It's very high in nutrition and big on WOW factor. If you have a shady garden you might try some as dark leaved plants tend to do better in the shade. At Alice's garden black lettuce is planted along with green lettuce to have as a combo in a salad. She also inter-plants it along side potatoes, by the time the lettuce is done for its season, the potatoes have taken over. It's a great way to maximize space. Owner Alice starts all her own lettuces and gets her seeds from Territorial Seed Company.

Alice's garden is small, but mighty in its output due mainly to truck loads of compost when the garden was first created. It also has a well maintained irrigation system that keeps a constant flow of water on each plant.

Here are some more examples of what's growing now in this highly productive space.

Meet us at the PT Farmer's Market

Sat, 20 May 2023 17:15:15 GMT

The sun was out and we were IN!

5-20-23

Garden coordinator Dianna Wiklund and Grange FBG manager, Barbara Tusting were at the PT Farmer's Market during the Rhody Parade. Many stopped by on their way to a get a good parade viewing seat and a few signed up to become Food Bank Growers as well as donated.

Kathy Ryan represented FBG walking with all the Jefferson Community Foundation recipients.

Thank you all. What a perfect day and so much fun!

Wire Worms infest a garden

Fri, 12 May 2023 03:38:50 GMT

What's a gardener to do?

5/11/2023

Alexa, the farm manager of Goosefoot Farm in Chimacum, contacted the WSU Extension Regional Small Farms Program using the technical assistance feature on the Regional Small Farms Program website to request help managing significant flea beetle and wireworm problems in their fields.

Wireworms (click beetle larvae) have compromised growing of potatoes and sweet potatoes in two Food Bank gardens. Today we examined traps from sites where root crops were grown last year. Wireworm research from WSU Extension helped as we worked under the guidance of Master Gardener/Garden Manager, Lys Burden.

Submitted by Kathy Ryan

Three little pigs recycle PTFB spoilage

Thu, 04 May 2023 04:11:52 GMT

Making the most from what's left

5-2-23

Dundee Hill Community Garden is part of the Food Bank Growers network. They share their surplus grown on 10,000SF. The garden is soon to be joined by affordable housing as part of Olympic Housing Trust's exciting venture to create 5 homes on this donated land.

(Top Left) The three little pigs help recycle damaged produce from the foodbank. [Most goes to a large farm in Chimacum with 100 pigs.]

(Below) New squash are mounding in the field.

The greenhouse starts are nearly ready for planting and sharing. [Those tomatoes will be worth waiting for!]

Submitted by Kathy Ryan

Newsletter May 2023

Mon, 01 May 2023 23:30:11 GMT

Keeping up with To-Do list

In this Issue...

In the Garden this month…
Year-to-Date Harvest Numbers
On the Calendar - Upcoming Events
Recent Postings
Welcome New Growers

In the Garden this Month -

By Dianna Wiklund, FBG Garden Coordinator

At last our weather will be turning a bit warmer. Still the average temperature in May is between 47 and 62 degrees F. NOAA is forecasting warmer and drier than average for May. The long term forecast for May, June, July is warmer and drier than average so it is time to prepare for the change over.

If you haven't already it is time to make sure your irrigation systems are working. I use soaker hoses and I will be repairing any winter damage and cleaning them out in the next couple of weeks. Those with drip irrigation have lots of parts to check and test. Make sure nothing is clogged up. I highly recommend a timer on whatever your system is.

It is also time to start another round of transplant starts for filling in and later harvest. I especially do this with brassica. This will be my fall harvest as well as filling in any that didn't survive from my first planting.

Keep up your slug patrols!

Planting out in May from seed:

Dill, Chamomile, Cilantro, Mint, Parsley
Carrots (remember to cover them to keep the seeds moist (burlap or cardboard just until they germinate. Then switch to a row cover to keep out rust fly.
Mustard family (Brassicaceae) Broccoli, Cauliflower, Cabbage.
Beets, Spinach, Lettuce
Beans and Corn. I start my corn inside in full length toilet paper tubes so I don't disturbed the roots when I transplant it out after the temperature really warms up.
Finally get those potatoes in the ground as soon as possible. It has just been too cold up to now. Remember the tubers form between the mother potato and 12" up the stem. I bury mine 6" deep and then add dirt and straw to cover the next 6".
Squash and melons can be started out under cloches or in cold frames. I start mine in my unheated greenhouse and transplant them shortly after they germinate again don't mess with their roots).
Last chance to put in the onion starts. They must be planted before mid May or they will not bulb up. Any starts that don't bulb up can be used as scallions.

I have seen or heard a few pollinators in my fruit trees. Keep your eyes and ears open. If we don’t get adequate pollination now we won't get fruit this summer and fall. I will be heading out with my paint brush as my trees bloom just to make sure I get something this it year. Plus it is fun just to be with the trees while they are blooming.

Happy Gardening.mmHave questions/comments?

Dianna can be reached at: FBGgardencoordinator@gmail.com

Year-to-Date Harvest - 896.2 pounds

Turnip Greens, Turnips, Kale, Chard, Pac Choi and Spinach are the biggest crops. For a full breakout go here .

Upcoming Events

Click for full monthly calendar of opportunities - gardening, harvesting, gleaning…

(Located on the front page of FoodBankGrowers.org website.)

May 13 10:00-2:00 Plant Sale
at the Grange Food Bank Garden
May 20 5:00-6:30 Weaving the Web: Soil, Pollinators, Human Health Presented by Jill Allison via Zoom.
May 20 - FBG at the Port Townsend Farmers Market — Come talk with us at our booth from 9:00 to 2:00

Recent Postings on FoodBankGrowers.org

Boat School Garden gains tool shed and wash stand

Kathy Ryan nominated for Citizen of the Year

Turnips out. Tomatoes in.

Connectivity Fair

PTHS Garden off to a Fresh Start

Grow Food for Pennies

May 13 Plant Sale

Getting Started with Starts

Welcome New Growers!

Abby Gullett, Amber Langley, Jon Evans, Sallie Cymbalski,

Sharon Bastian, Wendy Norquist, George Sawyer

Volunteers Needed for:

Garden Managers -- Each garden needs a point person -- someone who can point to what to do next… This year we're partnering new Garden Managers with experienced ones for every step. Between them, Dianna, and the Monthly "to dos", you'll have everything you need to produce baskets full of produce.

Growers - - Learn how to grow fresh food for the Food Banks while learning how to grow food for yourself at home. We guarantee the every day you'll learn something new. All gardens will need help -- the more volunteers, the easier and more fun the work becomes. Go to the MAP SECTION of the website and locate a garden near you. Stay at one, or rotate through many. Hours differ by garden.

Harvesters - Each garden will need harvesters to pick and prepare the produce for the Food Bank distribution. Hours differ by garden. “Gleaning” will start later this summer.

Writers - Could you talk about plants all day? Put it in writing. You write. We'll post.

Thank you for your time, cash, or tools We are a small organization that puts all donations to work. Go HERE for more information.

Grow Food for Pennies

Sun, 30 Apr 2023 21:27:24 GMT

Predictable - Repeatable - Affordable

5-1-23 Happy May Day!

While the rest of the nation suffers from floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, extreme heat, fires, hail... here in Jefferson County WA we just have to deal with gray days and moderate temperatures until the summer sun kicks in. We are rich in how many days we can grow food without fear of losing a crop, but where to start?

Below are some ideas on what can be planted once and will produce an endless bounty of food; or something which may need more tending, but still will keep the pantry full. Not all of us have land to grow in, but all of us can start a pot of tomatoes on the back porch. Another option is to work with your landlord to plant a "forever food" and then when you move, the plant pays it forward to the next renter.

Below is a starter plant list , a link to more container loving plants , and other ideas for saving money on the grow ...

Many things that don't take much space or time, just ambition to get them started come what May... or June...

Plant Sale May 13, 10:00-2:00

Sun, 30 Apr 2023 16:24:43 GMT

Instant Gratification Gardens

Come for a few starts, or plant your entire garden!

Ready to grow vegetables, flowers, herbs and ornamental starts are offered at this Food Bank Growers plant sale.

Saturday, May 13, from 10-2

Quimper Grange, 1219 Corona Ave, PT.

A special donation from WSU Master Gardeners of over 100 hosta plants will also be offered at this sale. Volunteers will be on site to help with growing tips for all your new plants.

Food Bank Growers volunteers grow plant starts for eleven FBG gardens, to give to food banks, and for fundraising sales. Please join us, rain or shine, and support community food security. You can even donate some of your future produce to the food banks!

For questions, contact FoodBankGrowers@gmail.com

Top left photo: Volunteer Jay McDowell, Jr .

.

Getting Started with Starts

Sun, 30 Apr 2023 15:37:19 GMT

Excess FBG plants are going to the food banks

As the saying goes, give a man a fish he’ll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime.

Maybe planting a few lettuces or kale won’t feed someone for a lifetime, but it could start a lifetime love of gardening and from there the plot thickens…

Recently FBG Garden coordinator, Dianna Wiklund has been taking the extra starts from the Grange garden, Red Hen garden, and Nita Webster's Seed Starting Workshop to the food banks for distribution. Those who have land or a planter can grow their own personal “food bank” because "growing your own food is like growing your own money," according to garden activist Ron Finley. Due to California floods limiting crop growth, produce prices are climbing. The FBGrowers are planting loads of greens in anticipation of the summer need and consequently have an abundance of starts that can go to homes.

Dianna has been taking starts to all Food Banks — Port Townsend, Tri-Area, Quilcene, Brinnon, Eaglemount, and Coyle. The last two are “pop up” food banks whereby a truck rolls in with food options, tables, tents... at the same expected time each week. The Old Eaglemount road pop up has been bringing fresh food to locals on the ridge for many years. This year JeffCo Food Bank Warehouse manager, Joe von Volkli, overseas the set up and take down from 1:00-3:00 on the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of each month near the Eaglemount road "triangle". Coyle residents have a truckload delivered to their Community Center on Wednesdays from 10:00-11:00.

Over the past couple of weeks, Dianna has delivered 85 cherry tomato starts, 10 slicing cucumbers, 18 purple sprouting broccoli, 9 dill plants, 12 lemon balm, 1 celery, 3-4 pack of phacelia and many seed packs. Midori Farms brought 2 trays of Kale starts, 2 trays of Swiss Chard, and a tray of beets in 4 packs. Starts are dropped off, picked up, and then taken to the next food bank point until they are gone. On Wednesday Dianna took 6 trays to Coyle and came back with only one.

The availability of fresh food from industrial farms may become more questionable in the future; learning how to grow and harvest “backyard food banks” is a start towards feeding ourselves much like the Victory Gardens did after WWII.

Brian's Garden in April 2023

Sat, 22 Apr 2023 01:07:47 GMT

New Table for the Harvest Days Ahead

4-21-23

A lot has happened at Brian's Garden in the past 2 weeks! Volunteers have weeded all the beds, put up a table to gather and share food and ideas, added soil and moved strawberries to the table bed, and planted starts of peas and onions. The rhubarb is looking nearly ready for harvest to the Food Bank!

Thanks all!!!

Submitted by Kathy Ryan

We're Connected!

Wed, 19 Apr 2023 15:57:45 GMT

Thank you for Volunteering!!!!!

4-16-23

Sunday’s Connectivity Fair connected the Gleaners and the Growers to a new crop of volunteers who may have not known about our network of gardens and picking opportunities.

Gleaners, Suzanne Wilson and Seth Rolland, Garden Coordinator Dianna Wiklund and FBG President, Mark Paxton chatted with attendees about how they can learn the best gardening practices by getting their hands dirty... or why gleaning during the fruiting season benefits for their own cupboards while the majority of the pickings go to food banks, schools, and senior centers.

(Below) Seth Rolland (Gleaner), Mark Paxton (Grower) Shelby Smith (JCCWP), Kathy Ryan (Food Banks) and Judy Alexander (Community Activist) discuss the food safety net issues that face our community.

A big thank you to all who attended and learned about the ways our community is glued together. You made this day of connections so successful.

PTHS Garden - Off to a fresh start

Sun, 16 Apr 2023 16:19:56 GMT

Down goes the mulch and up come the plants.

TOP LEFT, Doug and Polly plant blueberries

4-16-23

These two rows of path between the berries at the Port Townsend High School Garden represent the work of 4 people for 1.5 hrs., with 5 loads of mulch per row. The garden has 10,000SF and swarms on Fridays with well organized and enthusiastic first year high school students: mulching, seeding, planting, weeding and doing all the things that make this garden so productive for the schools and donate surplus to the PT Foodbank. It is all about sharing knowledge, a lot of laughing, and teamwork.

Planting our the pollinator garden on the hill with a newly mulched path keeping weeds from the garden.

New lettuce starts get ready to get in line...

Submitted by Kathy Ryan

A Tool Shed and Wash Stand Completes the Boat School Garden

Fri, 14 Apr 2023 21:38:03 GMT

Building a more functional garden

Earlier this month, the Boat School Food Bank Garden acquired two additional units, a shed, and a washing station to support functions at the garden. The new units (along with the first one delivered in February) fit the garden space perfectly providing charm, unique character, and great functionality.

Dave and Andrea James of Port Hadlock donated an 8x8 shed that tucks into the back corner of the garden and provides storage for larger tools and supplements used by all Tri-Area Food Bank Gardens. Dave and Andrea also donated many loads of cardboard that supported our previous mulching effort. Leveraging the muscle of neighbors and the complimentary use of a hot-tub trailer from Olympic Rentals in Hadlock, the shed and underlying platform were moved to the garden in a single day.

The third and final unit was a washing station that supports harvest day in the garden. We aren’t sure why 2 sinks were provided but we are hoping that someone anticipates large harvests as the weather improves! The washing station was designed and built by the Community Boat Project and was used for our first harvest on April 10 . The space provided ample surface area to wash and store produce in trays before being weighed and delivered to Tri-Area Food Bank. This is a big step forward for us as last year we used 5-gallon buckets and a rigged-up surface to weigh produce This setup generated unreliable weight results and was ditched early in the season.

The first shed is being transitioned from a tool shed to a harvest support shed, and an ‘office’ for Food Bank Grower paperwork. The proximity between this shed, the washing station, and garden entrance work like the triangle kitchen design.

So… we must now transition from infrastructure to growing. We hope to serve the Food Bank community well along with our fellow Food Bank Growers.

Photo taken at the Community Boat Project after enjoying a delicious meal. Wooden Boat school garden managers Noreen Andrews and Lisa Politz surprised the Community Boat Project volunteers with a home made thank-you luncheon last week. “They (CBP) were so accommodating and agreeable to work with. We are eternally grateful for their hard work and quick turnaround.” Politz said of the volunteers. “A homemade meal was the least we could do to show our thanks.”

Submitted by Noreen Andrews, Boat School Garden Co-Manager.

Congratulations Kathy Ryan

Thu, 13 Apr 2023 21:56:29 GMT

Nominated for Citizen of the Year

4-10-23

Last week Mary Beth Haralovich surprised past FBG President, Food Bank Worker, and all-about-town volunteer Kathy Ryan with a certificate for being nominated as Citizen of the Year for Jefferson County. To be nominated, it means that those who she works with and benefits recognize and appreciate the years of effort she has put forward to patch all the holes in the food safety net.

Congratulations!

Turnips out. Tomatoes in!

Wed, 12 Apr 2023 03:58:32 GMT

The Grange Growers crank up production

From January 1 to date, the Quimper Grange Food Bank Growers Garden donated 59.25 pounds of turnip greens and 53 pounds of turnips. We are now converting the turnip bed to grow tomatoes.

Barbara commissioned a soil test. We met with Dianna Garden Coordinator to talk about potential amendments. The QC FBG crew is designing placement of the tomatoes. We plan to grow mostly cherry tomatoes because they are productive, easy to harvest and can get to the food banks quickly.

QC FBG garden harvest is so abundant that we now serve PT Food Bank, Recovery Cafe, Tri-Area Food Bank, and the Eaglemount Pop-up Food Bank.

Newsletter April 2023

Sun, 02 Apr 2023 19:20:00 GMT

APRIL 2023

In this Issue...

Welcome New Growers and Gleaners
In the Garden this month…
Year-to-Date Harvest Numbers
On the Calendar - Upcoming Events
Recent Postings

Welcome New Growers and Gleaners!

Jill Allison, Lee Bebout, Kim Barry, Michelle Busch,

Diane Bourshak, Mauren Dale, Jim Goldman,

Jennifer Hopkins, Inger Johnston, Robin Kosin, Alison Krisner,

Marta Krisovich, Alison Leonard, Mary Rodgers,

Christine Schuper, Meagon Taylor, Jef Terry, Polly Thurston, Barbara Walkover, Elaine Wellman, Kathy Salmonson,

Renee Lehr, Marlowe Moser, Jake Moser, Michael Chase

In the Garden this Month

By Dianna Wiklund, FBG Garden Coordinator

Cool and dry — that is the forecast for April according to at least 3 sources. We are still running late on warming up our soil and germination is slow going. So running a few weeks later than normal is where many of us are at. Very frustrating as the skies clear up and it looks warm but is not. Continue using whatever covering methods you can. I am even putting cloches over my peas hoping to get them growing safely.

Bed preparation continues for most of us. Most of us have already turned under or cut down our cover crops if you haven't please do so now. Time to pull all your overwintering root veggies before they decide to start growing and using up their stored sugars. Many brassicas are starting to put on a fresh crop so whether you pull them now is up to you. If you have the space you can just keep harvesting what is being put out this spring.

Mulch: Time to remove from some of our overwintered plants like Artichokes and asparagus. Time to start adding around our new plantings. As it is likely to be a dryish spring we are going to need to conserve as much of our soil moisture as we can. I use soaker hoses and mulch over them to keep the water in the soil. Row covers can also help over drip irrigation.

Planting: Now is the time to sow beets, carrots, lettuce, spinach, peas,and new brassicas. You can also start transplanting any of these out recommend covering you already have started to reduce transplant shock. Water well. Later in April when the soil warms above 40 degrees you can finally put in potatoes. This is also a good time to plant strawberries and Asparagus. Also late this month you can start corn and beans for transplant. Corn does not like its roots disturbed so here is a place to use compostable containers; paper pots, uncut toilet paper tubes,etc… you want something deep so the roots don't poke out before the soil is warm enough to transplant into.

April is also the time I start my daily slug walks. I set out boards near my beds and go out each morning, turn over each board and collect the slugs and snails. I then feed them to my ducks so they never come back but there are other options to get rid of them. You really want them to be at least 60 feet away from your garden beds.

Fruit trees are starting to bloom now. We need to keep a watch for pollinators. If they don't show up and do their job we will have too. Remember some trees need to be cross pollinated, pears for example.

Happy Gardening!

Have questions/comments?

Dianna can be reached at:

FBGgardencoordinator@gmail.com

Year-to-Date Harvest - 507.3 pounds

The Grange garden with its hoop houses and lots of sun continues to be the highest contributor at this time of year with lots of nutritious greens. Leeks planted last year and even carrots are coming in from the gardens.

Upcoming Events

Click for full monthly calendar of opportunities - gardening, harvesting, gleaning…

(Located on the front page of FoodBankGrowers.org website.)

April 16 - Connectivity Fair 1-5 Blue Heron Middle School

Come visit our table and learn about FBG opportunities.

Recent Postings on FoodBankGrowers.org

Grafting and Plant Sale Results

Brian’s Garden Spring Clean Up

Sow? Seed? How? Now?

Fri, 31 Mar 2023 22:12:03 GMT

So many ways to get started

This is our first time growing enough plants for a market garden with 35 raised beds. When tallied we needed about 1140 plants to fill the space which came to 35 flats of plants. We're fortunate to have a greenhouse that can be kept between 50-60 degrees day and night. That meant that whatever we planted won't go through a "season of hot and cold" which triggers bolting.

How much potting soil did we need?

Three large (44 liter) bags of Black Gold seeding soil medium was enough to get us going along with soil from the compost bin. We found that 4 liters filled ONE standard tray and 1.5 liters filled the mini-tray with 100, 1 inch holes seen above.

How long did it take to get them to size?

Most of the leafy greens planted took 2-3 weeks to get to a stage where they could be planted. All plants were tallied on a spread sheet for sowing, up-planting, and planting dates. Knowing how far ahead we need to plant will help later for mid-summer crops.

Pelleted seed vs. Bare seed

Pelleted seed arrive pre-coated and ready to plant. It's expensive compared to bare seed, but if saving time is an issue, it's worth the extra $$. Each of the pelleted seeds germinated in their cells and grew strong. Bare seeds took the same time, but they had to be carefully picked out and replanted into a cell of their own. That usually took 30 minutes per flat.

Heartbreak still happens

We sowed, grew, planted and smiled at hundreds of happy plants being tucked under a cloche until it was warmer. The next day we checked them and RATS! or voles or something with a tail... had chowed down on two of the beds. Three weeks of waiting and then this.

Not to worry - we have 10 more flats ready to go in another week and we'll keep planting to ensure we always have a steady flow. And... we've also set up a trap line...

Spring Clean Up and Plant Party

Fri, 31 Mar 2023 16:05:34 GMT

Brian's Garden

3-31-23

What a great team is coming together at Brian's Foodbank garden , the peas are planted and now we are readying the rest of the rows.

It's hard to believe that one person did this before as his passion, but wonderful to see Brian's dream come to life again! Thanks for stopping by Jeannie Glaspell, and our FBG garden coordinator, Dianna who has such a finger on the pulse of each of our 12 gardens and their needs and successes!

Submitted by roving reporter - Kathy Ryan

Grafting and Plant Sale RESULTS

Fri, 10 Mar 2023 02:31:13 GMT

Many took advantage of great pricing and unusual selections.

Our thanks to all who made the Spring Pop Up Sale a success.

Many came for the plants, but others came just for the grafting workshop and took home a new skill as well as a fruit tree -- ten trees, ten raspberries, and 10 bamboos went to new homes.

Someone took home that MONSTER Rhubarb root (top left). Yvonne won the Trellis Raffle and Pinky won the fabric bags hanging on the doorway (below).

Everyone had a great time welcoming in spring weather after this very, long winter.

Newsletter March 2023

Sun, 05 Mar 2023 22:34:03 GMT

Time to start sowing...

In this Issue...

In the Garden this month…
Everything About Amendments
Year-to-Date Harvest Numbers
On the Calendar - Upcoming Workshops and Plant Sales
Recent Postings
Volunteers Needed for…

In the Garden this Month - By Dianna Wiklund, FBG Garden Coordinator

Cold and wet. That is what we are looking at for March. Get out the cold frames, cloches and floating row covers. Prepare your greenhouses and hoop houses. These are the tools we will need to get everything started this month. According to NOAA it is likely to be colder and wetter than normal for the next 3 month, so we need to gear up for a cool start.
Most veggies can be started inside then transplanted out once they are up and growing well. If you are careful even beets and corn can be transplanted out in compostable containers. (I use toilet paper tubes.) Transplant shock can be mitigated by planting under cloches or in cold frames and hoop houses. Put Everything off a couple of weeks longer for direct planting than normal.
We may have to hand pollinate our fruit trees as I do not know if it will be warm enough for the pollinators to fly. Hand pollinating isn’t hard, just tedious. Remember some fruit trees require cross pollination, so move often between your trees. I hope this will bring all of us a better harvest than last year.
Many people have asked me when to plant potatoes. Usually this would be mid-March, but not this year unless you have a very well drained and warm site. If it is too cool and wet the potatoes will just rot in the ground. The soil must be at least 40 degrees for potatoes to sprout. Do no water them until they start to emerge above the ground. This is challenging with a very wet spring predicted.
Start as much as you can inside. Get your seedlings off to a good beginning as possible. Watch the weather forecast and look for when the low temperature goes above 40-45 degrees and stays there. Then we can start transplanting out, under cover, our hardier plants.

Have questions/comments?

Dianna can be reached at: FBGgardencoordinator@gmail.com

Everything About Amendments

Judith Johnson discovered this gem on GrowAbundant.com. It’s forever found on the FoodBankGrowers.org

LEARNING page or via this link.

Year-to-Date Harvest - 227 pounds

Go here for full break out of veggies harvested.

On the Calendar: Training, Workshops, and Plant Sales

Click for full monthly calendar Located on the front page of FoodBankGrowers.org website.

March 8, 8:30 - 4:00 Food Safety Plan, Practices, and Sanitation
March 11, 1:00 - 4:00 Tool Maintenance Workshop
March 25, 9:00-2:00 “Birch-Stock” Plant Sale and Grafting Event

Recent Postings on FoodBankGrowers.org

Slug. It. Out!

Mini Salads for PT Food Bank Seniors

Sharpen Your Tools and Skills
Boat S chool Mulching Party and More!

Volunteers Needed for:

Garden Managers -- Each garden needs a point person -- someone who can point to what to do next… This year we're partnering new Garden Managers with experienced ones for every step. Between them, Dianna, and the Monthly "to dos", you'll have everything you need to produce baskets full of produce.
Growers - - Learn how to grow fresh food for the Food Banks while learning how to grow food for yourself at home. We guarantee the every day you'll learn something new. All gardens will need help -- the more volunteers, the easier and more fun the work becomes. Go to the MAP SECTION of the website and locate a garden near you. Stay at one, or rotate through many. Hours differ by garden.
Harvesters - Each garden will need harvesters to pick and prepare the produce for the Food Bank distribution. Hours differ by garden.
Writers - Could you talk about plants all day? Put it in writing. You write. We'll post.

VOLUNTEER HERE

Thank you for your time, cash, or tools We are a shoe-string organization that puts all donations to work. Go HERE for more information.

Boat School Garden, Mulching and More Party

Mon, 13 Feb 2023 14:21:41 GMT

Many hands. Light work. Lots of Fun.

2-12-23

We are thrilled with the outpouring of help we received and the extent of work completed.

“We reached every goal we set for the day and more,” commented Boat School Garden co-Manager, Noreen Andrews, “We couldn’t have done it without the help we got from our community.”

The help for the day came from many groups including: members of the Food Bank Growers organization , The NW School of Wooden Boat Building , the Community Boat Project , and Jefferson County Master Gardeners . These volunteers came together to help us grow bigger and better so that we can grow produce that is bigger and better.

Shortly following the “garden work party” a delightful, whimsical tool shed was finished and delivered. (below)

Why was this project needed?

The areas around the raised beds, the walking paths, were filled with weeds. No amount of pulling would deter their growth; only by smothering them with cardboard and then adding a heavy mulch on top will the weeds get back under control. The mulch came as "hog fuel" or pulverized wood scraps from Hermann Bros , Port Angeles. A big thanks to them as well.
We needed trenches dug so we could plant berries along the front perimeter fence. The soil in this area is very compact and difficult to dig. Thanks to our creative volunteers we were able to create an opening using a tiller, pick axes, and shovels that we later filled in with soil and amendments more suitable to growing berries.
We hauled over 2 yards of topsoil from Port Townsend to the garden site and wheelbarrowed it from the trucks into a large bed that we needed to raise. Raising the bed will deter rabbits from jumping in and enjoying produce intended for the foodbank.
This garden had no place to store tools which meant gardeners were left toting everything back and forth in our vehicles from our homes. The Community Boat Project graciously came to our rescue and delivered the most adorable, completely re-habed tool shed.

What comes out of our combined efforts

Our Boat School Garden is a growing example of what can happen when local groups work together. In this case, the garden's creation and maintenance is shared between the Wooden Boat School and the Food Bank Growers. The garden spaces are split between the Wooden Boat School and the Food Bank Growers, with the produce grown in the Food Bank Growers spaces going to the Tri-Area Food Bank.

Our growing relationship with the Community Boat Project will continue to add functionality to the garden. The produce grown for delivery to the food bank needs to be washed before delivery but there are no facilities to support this requirement. Naturally the Community Boat Project is coming to the rescue again and will be building a washing station this spring.

We feel so fortunate to be supported by the Wooden Boat School and the Community Boat Project under Wayne Chementi's positive guidance. Both inspire us to be better gardeners and mindful that what we are doing helps to fill a gap for members of our community needing help with their basic food needs. It is our hope that members in need from these organizations are able to benefit from the produce that we, along with the rest of the Food Bank Grower gardens, grow, gather, and give each week to the Jefferson County Food Banks.

We invite you and the community to cruise by our little garden. The Boat School garden is located at the bend on Curtis Street in Port Hadlock, overlooking the boat school and Port Townsend Bay. (Curtis street starts at the bus stop across from QFC and the laundromat.) It's a bit tricky to find as it's on the top of the hill on the Boat School property, but so worth it. If you're lucky you may even see eagles that like to sit in the trees next to the garden.

Happy Gardening!

Submitted by:

Lisa Politz and Noreen Andrews - FBG Boat School Garden Co-Managers

Sharpen Your Skills and Tools

Sun, 12 Feb 2023 17:42:42 GMT

FBG Workshop makes spring cleaning more fun. (NEXT ONE March 11)

2-12-23

Five FBGgardens turned out for the spring Tool Maintenance Clinic. We all learned a lot about which sharpeners work the best on which tool, the benefits of a good brushing to get the large surface rust off, and howa touch of oil or WD-40 puts a spring in the springs and a slippery surface back on the shovels.

NEXT WORKSHOP - March 11, 1-4 at the Grange

Thank you Mark Paxton for supplying items, technique, and knowledge about the how-tos and Barbara Tusting for setting things in motion. We are all now trained to become helpers at the next Public Tool Maintenance Clinic. (just kidding, sort of...)

Seriously, this is why we share these experiences so each one, can teach one. We are, for the most part, the "grandparents" who taught us early on and now it's our turn to teach each other and the next generation of gardeners.

If you have a skill that you can share or like to write about other people's skills, let us know or tell your Garden Manager and let's sharpen all our gardening abilities.

Mini Salads for PT Food Bank Seniors

Sat, 04 Feb 2023 15:42:32 GMT

Jo's Special Salad Mix

The PT Food Bank is open for general distribution and Quick Pick on Wednesdays with a special day just for Seniors on Saturday.

Seniors have special needs. They may not have much storage or ability to cook from scratch. The Quimper Grange Foodbank Garden provides additional mini bags of salad mix for Seniors by collecting/packaging and sending off FRESH greens on Friday for next day pick up. Jo's Salad Mix is named for Jo Yount, one of the Grange Garden founders who has her own "salad making bar" growing in one of the greenhouses. Jo's salads are most appreciated and anticipated by all patrons, especially in winter!

Seen left in this month's bag are 'winter' carrots -- perfect for smaller appetites and much appreciated during February's gray days.

* the PT Food Bank relies heavily on surplus produce donated by local markets, Costco, Food Lifeline, or from local farms through support from Harvest Against Hunger.

Fresh, local, organically grown Greens are always prized.

Time to Slug. It. Out!

Sat, 04 Feb 2023 15:20:40 GMT

They're coming for ya. Be prepared.

2/4/23

It's February and they're back -- not that they ever left after digging in for the winter. As our greenhouses warm up, so does the ground and the slugs begin their spring migration into our planters and seedling trays looking for snacks.

What's a grower to do? Barbara Tusting at the Grange Garden went high class this year and is trying out the green slug bar (top left photo). After the beer is poured into the frame the top goes on to keep the rain out and then set on top of the ground. She has tried the mixtures of bait (sugar/yeast/salt/water), but she insists that beer works best for drawing in our most pervasive pest. Get something cheap. Slugs don't care if it's Budweiser, they'll belly up to the bar anyway and then die wishing that their last sip was of something better.

Traps work best when you have a lot of them and that can get expensive; instead use leftover yogurt containers to keep the price down. See how to to it via this 2 minute video.

Other (less vegan) ways of handling the matter gets physical by cutting them in half, stomping on them, or spreading the old-time favorite -- Sluggo -- around the base of plants. Sluggo is effective, but again, expensive. You can also put on your slug cape, night vision glasses, and pick them off your plants when they are patrolling your produce. Put them in a jar and let them loose across the road from the garden. If they make it back past the traffic, they deserve to live.

Newsletter February 2023

Wed, 01 Feb 2023 17:30:17 GMT

First Edition of " The Ground Up News"

FEBRUARY 2023

Hello Growers and Gleaners - Please let us know what you would like to see in future issues that would help serve our growing/gleaning community. Send ideas to FoodBankGrowers@gmail.com

In this Issue...

Garden Tips for February
Annual Report
In the News
The 2022 Harvest Results
New Calendar
How You can Help
Workshops and Clinics
Got Tools?

Garden tips for February - By Dianna Wiklund, FBG Garden Coordinator

This is a great time to start pruning your apples and pears. (Reminder stone fruits are pruned in summer after they have been harvested.)
Starts are a focus this month so bring out the heat mats and grow lights for your tomatoes and peppers.
Onions can be started now but don't use a light source as they may get confused when transplanted. Garlic can still be planted in the ground for a later season harvest.
Peas can be tricky here. If you sow them in the ground and it is too wet they will rot. I've have had my best years starting them late February or early March and transplanting out at about 3-4 inches tall.
Brassicas can get an early kick off by starting now and transplanting under cloches as the weather warms up. Note Cloches can be a simple plastic jug with the bottom cut off and the cap removed.
Perennials can also be planted out now: asparagus, artichokes, and strawberries.
This is a good time for garden dreaming. Imagine what wonderful things your garden can grow. The possibilities are endless and fun to research.

Have questions/comments about your gardens?

Dianna can be reached at FBGgardencoordinator@gmail.com

FBG 2022 Annual Report
Kathy Ryan - Annual Report and Legacy

We’re in the News
FBG Featured in Co-op Monthly Magazine - written by Kathy Ryan

The 2022 Harvest

Last year we cleared over 20,000 pounds of veggies, plus eggs, and 6600+ pounds of gleaned fruit. For more details go here.

2023 The Most Requested Veggies at Food Banks (more or less…)

Green Onions

Green Beans (all colors)

Peas snap and a few snow

Romaine lettuce because it keeps.

Celery

Radishes

Acorn Squash

Cabbage

Broccoli

Bok choy

Cucumber

Blueberries

Corn

Summer squash

Tomatoes, slicing and cherry

Peppers

Spinach

Lettuce

Herbs- Basil, parsley, cilantro, mint...

Not so much on brassicas such as Kale, Collards, and Swiss Chard

New FBG Calendar
Check out our new monthly calendar on the home page of the website/tablet/phone . This is where all the standing work parties, harvest days, online meetings, and special events will be hosted. No more scrolling through old emails to get that date and time. What you see is always the latest info.

We are using MyCityScene for the platform which will let us have an FBG calendar and also allow us to broadcast events on the Port Townsend City Scene calendar. Win Win.

How Can You Help?

Garden Managers -- Each garden needs a point person -- someone who can point to what to do next… This year we're partnering new Garden Managers with experienced ones for every step. Between them, Dianna, and the Monthly "to dos", you'll have everything you need to produce baskets of produce.

Growers - - Learn how to grow fresh food for the Food Banks while learning how to grow food for yourself at home. We guarantee the every day you'll learn something new. All gardens will need help -- the more volunteers, the easier and more fun the work becomes. Go to the MAP SECTION of the website and locate a garden near you. Stay at one, or rotate through many. Hours differ by garden.

Harvesters - Each garden will need harvesters to pick and prepare the produce for the Food Bank distribution. Hours differ by garden.

Writers - Could you talk about plants all day? Put it in writing. You write and we will post.

VOLUNTEER HERE

Upcoming Workshops and Clinics (full list on Foodbankgrowers.org.)

Boat School Workshop February 4, 10-2
Tool clean up Clinic for FBG Volunteers February 11, 10-12
Master Gardener Yard and Garden Series February 11-March 25

Got news? Send to foodbankgrowers@gmail.com - Mary or Mark will get back to you.

Thank you for your time, cash, or tools, we are a garden-boot-strap organization that puts all donations to work.

Go HERE for more information.

FAQ for New Volunteers

Tue, 31 Jan 2023 22:47:11 GMT

Answers to FAQs

Q: How much produce is given away each year?

Our highest year was 2021 with a total of 18,000 pounds from the growers and 18,000 pounds from the gleaners. Every year is different as the crops we plant and the cold/hot/wet weather conditions.

Q: Who does the FBG serve?

Primarily food banks in Port Townsend, Tri-Area, Quilcene, and Brinnon. We also donate to schools and non-profits in the area.

Q: Where are the Gardens?

We have gardens and orchards on farms, schools, private and public land…

Go to the map page and see where they located and cover. Once you are with a garden, the Garden Manager will become your link to that garden and FBG.

Q: Can I “glean" as well as “grow”?

Sure. Many of our growers also show up at the fall gleaning opportunities . We provide the ladders, picking bags, and weekly organization. Gleaners are on a separate email list that informs volunteers of what’s ripe each week. (Link to gleaner page)

Q: How do I donate garden tools?

Contact FBGGardenCoordinator@gmail.com for tool placement.

Q: I can’t commit to every week, but would like to help.

Throughout the year we hold work parties for one-time projects such as building fences or chipping a garden. The front page calendar and the Newsletter will flag those opportunities.

Q: I want to donate a garden space or orchard. Who do I contact?

FBGGardenCoordinator@gmail.com for the garden space.

PTGleaning@gmail.com for trees -- apple/pear/asian pear/plum is our focus,

but we also consider fig and other stone fruits.

Fruit Tree Pruning Clinic & Work Party

Sun, 29 Jan 2023 16:19:32 GMT

Another "Learn by Doing" Day

One of the perks of being a gleaner is to be able to learn from experts such as Master Gardener Doug Van Allen on how to keep fruit trees in top shape. This year's workshop for pruning apple, pear, asian pear, and Italian plum trees took place in January after the last heavy freeze and before the February thaw when things start growing again. Stone crop trees (such as cherries and peaches) are pruned in the summer after the fruit is picked and when conditions are dry.

About 30 people assembled to learn about which tools are the best. Doug likes the Silky hand saw and its bigger partner Gomboy . He also gave the pros and cons of using extension pruners which have a good reach if you want to stay on the ground vs. a ladder, but they aren't cheap.

During the two hour session, Doug covered the nuance of why trim just above "collar” at the branch joint (it reseals better), how to cut to encourage lateral growth, and why it's important to keep light & air flowing through the limbs.

He also went over the basics of safety before everyone took to the trees.

When using a saw, have your non-cutting hand to one side and not under the place being cut.
Keep one hand on the ladder at all times.
Don't step beyond the top two rungs.
Make sure the ladder is securely anchored to the ground by stepping on the bottom rung with all your weight.
Use an 3-legged orchard ladder vs. a four legged version for better stability on uneven ground.
Sterilize tools before starting to prune and when detecting disease in a tree being worked on (70% Isopropol Alcohol or Hydrogen Peroxide)

Once everyone learned the basics, they were turned loose on one of the "backyard orchards" gleaners pick each year. The day was a win win for gaining instruction, applying what was learned, and getting a private orchard shaped back up at the same time.

The next weekend, more pruning knowledge was applied at the Blue Heron Middle School Orchard where gleaners shaped up 70 fruit trees keeping them low enough so that students could easily pick the apples.

"Learning by Doing" i s the best way to gain a new skill while giving back to the community. We have a whole season of learning ahead of us. Volunteer at one of the Food Bank Gardens now or wait until fall and work with the Gleaners -- learn something, make friends, and take home some fresh food.

2022 Annual Report

Thu, 26 Jan 2023 15:04:28 GMT

Past President Kathy Ryan sums up the year(s)

My last annual report as 3rd president of the Foodbank Farm and Gardens, Inc, dba Foodbank Growers, is bittersweet. Karen Kastel preceded me. She was an Americorps VISTA coordinator for the Farm Gleaning program we were then part of. Lys Burden preceded Karen. She was one of our Founding Mothers, a Port Townsend Food bank volunteer, and a source of ongoing support on every level, especially to new gardens.

I came onboard as president in 2017 as a filler. Everyone else on the team was an accomplished grower. I was a relatively new volunteer at the Quimper Grange Foodbank Garden. I had worked on small farms for nearly 20 years and came to appreciate the tremendous skill of farmers who had to think clearly on so many levels at the same time: staffing, weather, timing, seeding, transplanting, soil nourishing, harvest, finance, distribution.

But--I could run a meeting, so I did.

In 2017, 5 years ago, we had 3 gardens:

-MountainView begun by the YMCA, which shared surplus with the Port Townsend Food Bank,

-the Port Townsend High School garden which produced for the schools in winter and which we managed and harvested in summer chiefly for the food bank, and

-the Quimper Grange, which was our first dedicated food bank garden.

Rob Greenfield created a video of the gardens which had over 1.2 thousand views. We donated about 2,500 pounds of organically grown produce to the Port Townsend Foodbank to meet a critical community need.

By 2022, we had 12 gardens on over 2 acres with 9 greenhouses, and donated 20,527 pounds of produce [with over 12,000# from Goosefoot Farm at FinnRiver Orchard] and 183.5 dozen eggs that year, with nearly 6,000 volunteer hours tracked, and over 6,500 pounds of fruit from Quimper First Harvest. [Total donation to all distributors: 27,140, a decrease of 10,000 pounds from 2021, showing the impact of climate change]. We had Memoranda of Understanding with landowners, insurance, a website and Facebook presence, and included church gardens, home gardens, business gardens, a Grange garden, farm gardens, a designated Community Garden [which is part of an exciting housing partnership with the Olympic Housing Trust], and other food bank gardens. No two are the same. All with a single vision: grow, gather, give.

3 of those 5 years were during a pandemic.

Entering our second decade, we now provide produce for four Jefferson County food banks, having added Tri-Area, Quilcene and Brinnon, as well as other distributors, including JCARF CSAs providing for BIPOC* families, and the Jefferson Hospital Oncology Department. We maintain a strong partnership with WSU Master Gardeners, who volunteer in one or more capacities in nearly every garden, and we spun off Growing Groceries in conjunction with WSU to grow more growers. One of our garden managers created the WSU Seed Library, another volunteer began a pilot for a successful freeze drying project that secured over 300 bags of fragile surplus produce that would otherwise have been given to pigs and chickens. This was in partnership with Jefferson County Public Health, WSU Extension Jefferson, and the Old Alcohol Plant/Bayside Housing. The two freeze dryers are currently relocated: one to the Port Townsend Schools and the second to the Recovery Cafe. [The project is being scaled up by other partners for long term food security.]

In 2022, we merged with Quimper Community Harvest Gleaners (also known as PT Gleaners), who work mostly with residential orchards and in 2022 donated 6,573 pounds of fruit in addition to the 1500-2000 pounds harvested at the Blue Heron Orchard. [In 2021 their harvest had been 18,000 pounds. 2022 was a low year following the 2021 heat dome and long, cold, wet spring of 2022 which severely impacted the growth particularly of stone fruit.]

When COVID shut down the country, we partnered with a local initiative to deliver produce from the gardens to the Port Townsend Food Bank via Peddler PT, using an electric bike. We formed a team of volunteers that gardened in the summer at the Port Townsend High School Garden, and in winter travels from garden to garden helping on work parties as needed. We called it the Wild Rovers. We have participated in the Jefferson County Local Food Systems Council, Jefferson Food Access Working Group, Peninsula Food Coalition, the Farm Food Festival, the Jefferson County Farm Tours, and have had a booths at the All County Picnic, as well as presentations on KPTZ and articles in the Port Townsend Leader, Peninsula Daily News, Ludlow Voice, and High Country News. We were asked to present at the WA Master Gardeners 2022 Conference in Olympia.

2022 was the year of organizational infrastructure when we worked to capture in print what was the best of our practice. Our incredible volunteers, while increasing production by over 2000 pounds in the gardens alone, and increasing winter growing to provide an additional 5,593.85 pounds of vegetables from October through the end of December, created and implemented a strategic plan for the year

Rebuilt the website: www.foodbankgrowers.org , while maintaining Facebook and Instagram
Re-instituted the position of Garden Coordinator, funded through WA Commerce and administered through WSU Extension/SNAP from January 2022-June 2023. In addition to the $30,000 Garden Coordinator’s funding, this funding also provided $60,000 stipends for the 4-farmer team at Goosefoot.
Codified procedures; created and organized files and photos on google docs
Organized our physical archive
Added a garden and finance committee to gather and provide input to the Board for direction, planning, and funding
Updated and shared our seed supply with gardens and through the food banks.
Created best practice binders as a support for garden managers
Increased winter planting and harvesting
Added a second Plant Sale to support winter growing
Added a presentation in partnership with WSU Master Gardeners on winter growing
Presented at service groups and garden clubs, which provided visibility and fiscal support as well as creating additional volunteer opportunities
Added gardens

We are a volunteer organization supported chiefly by donations and grants: we have increased food security and decreased food waste, as well as added part time staff through targeted funding of over$125,000. Meetings of the Food Security Organization coordinated by the Jefferson Community Foundation, and the Peninsula Food Coalition were critical in providing information and support for the bulk of this funding.

To maintain these programs and add administrative support, we need a solid General Fund of at least $150,000. This will be a critical goal for 2023.

I leave the organization’s board with over 70 volunteers and a solid infrastructure.

We have worked hard, and effectively for 10 years to absorb and support all the interest around local gardens, building community and supplying food for food banks and others in need.

We have had generous landowners sharing space for gardens.

We have worked with the larger community.

We have been part of a network of service providers trying to fill gaps without duplication.

We have listened.

We have grown, gathered, given.

https://www.foodbankgrowers.org/about

Thank you.

* https://www.healthline.com/health/bipoc-meaning#meaning

Respectfully submitted,

Kathy Ryan, President 2017-2022, Foodbank Growers

Seed Queen Mary Beth Haralovich

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Sun, 08 Jan 2023 19:00:22 GMT

The keeper of the FBG Seed Bank

It's that time of the year when our mail boxes are gloriously full of seed catalogs, but which do we order and at what cost?

We want them ALL, (of course) -- the biggest chard, the weird, the colorful, the one our family use to grow... but we are "Food Bank Growers" and therefore our choices are limited to what our individual gardens will grow best and what the Food Bank patrons will love to pick up and cook at home.

These past few years, we also need to know which ones have the best germination rate and can handle cool/hot/wet/dry... conditions. Then there is the cost -- it doesn't take long before the "I want" list has to pare down to the "what do I really need" list -- $4 per pack with shipping can end up being $10 per seed pack.

That's where Mary Beth Haralovich comes in. She is the keeper of the seeds donated to the Food Bank Growers, from those gleaned off of last year's plants, to last year's store collections to make way for this year's crop of packs. Older seeds may not germinate at the rate of this year's seeds, but many are still viable and luckily, FREE to try.

Each January, Mary Beth sends out the master wish list of what's available to all FBG Garden Managers. It's still an overwhelming list of options, but at least we're whittling down the list from 1000 options to the top 100 that grow well in the Pacific Northwest. This is also where the WSU Seed Bank comes in as keepers of local seed that are also free for the community to use on a take one/leave one if you can basis. Karen Seabrook , the manager of Swan Farm Community and Food Bank Garde n and Mado Most oversee the WSU Seed Bank operation.

This year we'll be addressing the Seediest Issue ... How many seeds are needed per gardening row or bed? How many do you need to have on hand to plant in the spring and then again in the fall? How many will germinate and how does that fit into the order form?

For example a 16 foot row of green beans is probably one packet of beans. But how much lettuce (with those super tiny seeds) can we get out of one packet or gram or jar... We may be on a fool's errand trying to figure that one out, but if we do, we'll publish the results for everyone to read.

Until then, FBG Managers get your orders into Mary Beth and arrange a time for her to drop off your seed stash for 2023. She may not have everything you want, but she'll still save you a lot of money.

Welcome Local Gardening Expert, Dianna Wiklund

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Sat, 07 Jan 2023 22:18:43 GMT

New Garden Coordinator for the FBG

A big garden glove welcome to our new Garden Coordinator, Dianna Wiklund seen here showing off her fast fix for punctured soaker hoses and her favorite garden tool -- a cobra hand hoe.

Dianna brings a humble and humbling background of being a Master Gardener, Growing Groceries instructor, Food Preservation instructor, and (of course) a scratch cook. Her recipes start with "first you sow the seed for…" Dianna also practices what she preaches -- 90% of their family's produce and eggs come out of their home garden which includes turkeys, chickens, slug-eating ducks, and one very vocal goose.

She'll be taking over from Sophie DeGroot keeping track of our individual garden needs for bulk orders of soil, compost, irrigation, and harvest bags; plus contributing to the monthly newsletter and supplying ideas for growers on soil and plants. "Purple plants do better in shady/cool gardens," she says.

Dianna's personal gardening style is organic first, no dig (except potatoes), plant/eat for your conditions, and rotate crops to avoid soil pathogens from building up. She likes to keep things as simple as possible to make gardening less work and more fun.

If she had to pick one veggie to plant/eat forever, it would be beets for both their fresh greens and preservable roots. And if she had to pick one tool, it would be her cobra hand pick that can dig into rocky soil lifting out the most wedged weeds.

Dianna and her husband Glenn live on Marrowstone Island where they have been building a life of gardens, greenhouses, and now a new above ground "storage cellar" since May 2004

She can be found online at FoodBankGrowers@gmail.com , or sowing crops and gardening advice at one of our 12 gardens.

Meet Mary Hunt, FBG President

Sun, 01 Jan 2023 16:25:12 GMT

Tippy, tapping out the news...

2/3/23

This is what most people see of Mary Hunt -- what comes off her fingertips. She's been responsible for the website content, the GreenMap of our gardens, the FBG look and feel, newsletters, artwork, spreadsheets for garden maintenance and automation, photos… As a retired communications specialist, it's just another day at the office, but with one client and purpose -- "to grow, gather, and give to others."

Mary is a lifelong gardener who planted and picked far too many Kentucky Wonder green beans growing up in Michigan and ever since looks for ways to make gardening tasks less back-breaking or boring. Like many gardeners, she's had her heart broken by crop failure in the fall only to be revived each year with the arrival of the first seed catalog. While she still drools over the biggest squash, she only plants what will grow the best in NW conditions and can be preserved for her household to use over winter. As the Red Hen garden manager, she relies on Grow Veg.com and simple Google Doc reports to automate the needs of the 33 raised beds and a dozen volunteers.

Blending her needs for fresh food with less back-breaking effort, Mary has a 10x25 foot Aquaponics greenhouse at home. Each day the goldfish water from a 300 gallon tank cycles through gravel feeding plants and returns cleaned up into the tank. Her most productive plants are tomatoes, cucumbers, Basil, and brassicas all growing away with no need to weed, feed, or worry about animals or pests. This year, seedlings for the Red Hen garden will be gracing the floor.

Mary shares her plant based life with husband Mike and loves to hear about all verdant exploits face-to-face or typeface-to-typeface. She can be reached at maryclarehunt@gmail.com

Gleaner Harvest Totals for 2022

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Wed, 07 Dec 2022 04:00:55 GMT

Thank you Quimper Community Harvest Gleaners!

We’ve finished up our 15 ^th season of gleaning and time now to enjoy what’s left of that fresh, frozen, dried, sauced, canned, juiced, jammed, caramelized and fermented fruit we picked.

This was one of our least abundant fruit years with almost no plums or pears, and an off year for apples, y et despite that, we delivered 6,573* pounds of local, organic fruit that would have gone to waste to 17 different organizations or events** where it nourished and was enjoyed by many in our community. Included in that total is the 1500+ pounds of applesauce that will be feeding Port Townsend and Quilcene students all winter.

Not included in that number is the approximately 1500 - 2000 pounds of apples picked at the Blue Heron middle school orchard, which this year was almost entirely harvested by students. The 6 ^th graders conducted taste tests of the varieties, and in January will be harvesting scion wood of their favorites, and then each grafting their own tree in March. Anyone with experience doing that who would like to help, please let us know. It’s exciting to have orchard education become part of the curriculum.

Special thanks to Katie, Tammy, Marty, Jane, Sonny, Janice, and Kathy for doing the bulk of the tree checks (that is truly the most crucial job), Paula for doing all the Tri area tree checks, leading the Tri area picking crews, doing most of the Chimacum deliveries and sewing a ton of new picking bags. Many thanks to all who came, picked, and then came back! We had a lot of great returning and new gleaners this year and many awesome kids. We hope to see you all in the trees next year.

Seth, Kathy, Suzanne, Mary, Gabrielle, and Janice (who is joining our leadership team for next year!)

PS, We’ll be aiming to have a pruning workshop in January, we’ll pick a date soon.

*Doing the math per pound we picked and delivered about 602 plums, 460 pears, 270 Asian pears, 430 figs and 18,408 apples (plus a few thousand for ourselves). Well done!

** Chimacum Primary, Elementary and High schools, Port Townsend School District kitchen, Blue Heron middle school, Cedarbrook School, Tri Area Food Bank, Pat’s Place, Tri Area Senior meals, San Juan Commons, Discovery Apartments, Claridge Court, JC Anti-Racist Fund CSA, Marine Plaza

A 24-Carrot Tasting Party

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Sun, 23 Oct 2022 14:49:50 GMT

Who knew that gardens tasted this good?

A big Thank you to all Growers and Gleaners who make this work of growing, gathering, and giving possible.

On a perfect fall day FBG Growers and Gleaners gathered for the "table" part of farm to table at the RainCoast event center. (Thank you Margaret and Mike for the lovely space.). We had about 30 people in attendance which represented every garden and the our newly joined gleaner group.

We started out with RainCoast tastings of Blackberry Shrub and their newly bottledSiegerrebe wine (zee-ger-RAY-bah)and other beverages to carry around while touring the vineyards, flowers, and orchards. We then regrouped to try out the home chef favorites we all like to make. Lastly everyone went home with a sample of Green Tomato Chutney from the overabundance of tomatoes at Red Hen's greenhouse that didn't ripen.

Over time the dishes and their recipes will be loaded up into the recipe section and linked from the below list.

The tastings...

Cherry Pie Crumble - Kathy Darrow

Red and Green Tomato Chutneys - Alden and Judith Johnson

Cute Cuke Bites - Mary Hunt

Veggie Sushi - Mary Hunt

Carrot Cake Cupcakes - Mike Farrell

Apple Sauce Bars - Amy Does

Fig Jam - Kathy Ryan

Shredded Beet Salad - Hilary Newell

Salmon Quiche - Clair Eike

Cucumber/Lime Agua Fresca - Clair Eike

Mizuna Salad - Cheryl Lowe

Tofu Sticks and Polish Beet Relish - Jerome Zygar / Noreen Anderson

Tzatziki Sauce - Sophie DeGroot

Red Sauerkraut - Doug Van Allen

Vegetarian Shepard Pie - Ruth Blyther

Quick Pickled Onions - Mary Paxton

Zucchini Fritters - Mary Paxton

Chick Pea Salad - Alex Rosoff

Summer Veggie Pasta Bake - Belinda Jimenez

Greek Potato Salad - Morgana Bernard

Curried Lentils - Rach Stevenson

Brian's Garden - One year later...

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Sat, 22 Oct 2022 16:57:58 GMT

If you can dig it, you'll get truckloads of returns

10/3/22

Brian’s garden got its start many years ago when its namesake owner (Brian) first developed the space -- he put much time and love into the soil, but after he passed on, the garden was left to survive on its own. Last year his wife donated the use of the fenced in garden to the Food Bank Growers. The weeds needed serious eradication and a soft-tilled soil re-established, but just look at the results as the space was brought back to productive life!

The leaves pictured above represent the results of a sweet potato trial by the WSU Community Seed Project. There was also lots of squash, leeks, kale, kohlrabi, strawberries, peas, beets, red cabbage, scarlet runner beans, and a straw mound of potatoes.

Pictured below: a coyote came a-calling to visit the new gardeners.

What a difference a year makes -- over 173 pounds of fresh food vs. weeds.

Summer Veggie Pasta Bake

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Sat, 22 Oct 2022 16:17:19 GMT

The Jimenez ladies tag team this hardy dish.

Mom and daughter Jimenez summed up summer in a bowl with this pasta dish with veggies and herbs from Alice's garden and Belinda's personal garden herbs. This bake is both gluten free and vegetarian and easily becomes a base recipe from which you can be creative with different cheeses, pastas, and veggies.

Summer Veggie Pasta Dinner

3 mini eggplants*

1 zucchini

1/2 large onion

Toss the above with oil and roast for 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

Cook and drain 16 oz. of gluten free pasta

Mix pasta with:

2 cups marinara sauce

1 tub ricotta cheese (15 oz)

Mix everything together and add:

1/2 cup chopped mushrooms

3 cups chopped kale*

Fresh garden herbs:

2 tsp thyme*

2 tsp basil*

2 tsp oregano*

Salt to taste

Bake

350 degrees for 10-15 minutes

*Eggplant and kale from Alice's Garden. Herb's from Belinda's garden.

For more tasty recipes go here.

How to Sauerkraut

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Sat, 22 Oct 2022 15:53:04 GMT

Doug Van Allen shares his secrets

You don't need a 10 gallon crock of cabbage to salt and bury in the ground for fermenting and eating all winter... not when canning jars are close. And if you use red cabbage vs. white, the results will perk up any brat or side dish.

It's all about the technique, not the recipe.

Have 2-3 wide mouth canning jars sterilized and ready ( boil the airlocks and glass weights at the same time)
Chop 1-2 cabbage into smallish pieces.
Weigh the chopped cabbage and multiply the weight (in ounces) x 3% = "X". That "X amount" equals the approximate amount of Kosher salt (in ounces) to be kneaded into the chopped cabbage
Knead the cabbage vigorously for roughly 20-25 minutes while adding the salt. The cabbage will start releasing cabbage juice...you'll be using most of the juice.
Once kneading is done, start packing the cabbage into the jars. Use a ~2" dowel or round pipe with a cap glued on the end. Pack the cabbage as tightly as possible. You will be amazed at how much cabbage can be packed into a jar.
Once the packed cabbage fills the jar to within 1.5 inches of the rim drop the glass weight in (flat side down) and pour in enough juice to fill within about 1/2 inch off the rim. (See below)
Place the airlock (see below) on the jar (nipple up) and lightly seal with a jar ring
Label the jar with the date and any other ingredients added (garlic, spices, caraway seeds etc.) I use lab/specimen tape *, it's easy to remove.
Wait 2-3 weeks and put in fridge. Add that date to the label

NOTE: It's very likely that some foam or liquid will exit the jars through the airlock. For that reason I place the jars in small bowls to catch the overflow.

Enjoy your kraut on sandwiches, salads etc. It really goes with lots of pairings

*Links to Amazon are for visual reference. There are many places in town which sell jars, weights, airlocks, and marking tape.

For more tasty recipes, go here.

Fig Jam -- A variation on a theme...

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Sat, 22 Oct 2022 05:27:53 GMT

The recipe is just the starting point for Kathy Ryan

Artists rarely create the same thing over and over -- a little more of this, a little less of that and suddenly the work has a life of its own. Kathy Ryan did that using t his recipe by Veena Azmanov for her inspiration. (Figs are naturally low in sugar and also act as pectin which makes this recipe even more appealing.)

Kathy had Desert King figs growing in her backyard, but she also had apples and Italian plums on hand. Why not merge them with the figs? The recipe also called for cinnamon, but maybe a touch of fennel and cardamom would take it up a notch? Ahh… perfection. The result was nothing like Veena's recipe, but it did jam together the spirit of the day along with the available fruit. Ask for a sample the next time you're at her house.

Veena generously gives many tips on her webpage (far too many to recap here), give it a read and then give fig jam a try the next time they are in season and you feel like creating your own variation on a theme.

For more tasty recipes, go here.

Putting the PTHS Garden to bed

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 23:12:42 GMT

First rain of the season closes the garden

10/21/21

The FBG team cleaned and gleaned today at the PT High School Garden. It is SO lovely to be outside on a rainy day -- as though a switch was flipped and it’s really fall! Our watershed will replenish itself after a long dry summer. In the garden, we will continue to harvest kale, carrots and chard for the schools, with surplus going to the Foodbank. Many of the beds are tucked in for winter under leafy blankets for spring planting.

Doug and Cheryl are seen (in the slide show below), planning today's work.

New garden manager, Rachel Dunn joins the PT High School garden team.
Rachel also volunteers at Dundee Hill Community Garden and is on the board of the Olympic Housing Trust. Welcome Rachel!!

The PTHS students will collect the purple seed beans and compost the greens; they also helped harvest the squash which is curing in the hoop house (seen left) and help pull the irrigation hose.

Check out how healthy those peas are in October. They are a testimony to what can happen when you plant in the April and in August (the second spring).

Fall rain (and a wrap) on Blessings Garden

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 17:34:27 GMT

The season has a colorful ending

It was a lovely 'miszley' day as the morning crew cleaned up and secured the irrigation hose for next spring. Cleaning the remaining beds continued in the afternoon.

This garden is part of the community. Church members, volunteers, and the PT Foodbank benefit from the skills and dedication of its founders and volunteers.
Especially if you live in the San Juan/Umatilla neighborhood, please consider volunteering.

Yesterday’s dahlias brighten our home as we begin to enter a much needed rainy season!!

Thanks!

Kathy Ryan

Tzatziki sauce

Fri, 21 Oct 2022 17:07:56 GMT

It's easier to make than pronounce...

Tuh ZEE kee (You're welcome)

Spell it or say it however you want... but keep this super simple recipe in your head for the next Greek night. Without Tzatziki, it's just not Greek enough. Our thanks to Sophie DeGroot for this crowd pleaser.

Ingredients

1 cucumber

2 cups of Greek Yogurt

Dill/Olive oil/salt/lemon to taste

You may want to cut it in half, it makes a LOT.

Recipe

Start by making friends with someone growing cucumbers. At some point they''ll want to shove the end of the year abundance over to you.

Next peel (or not) and grate up one cucumber. Take the seeds out first if you're a purist, but it won't matter.

Fill a nylon cheese bag or even a bandana will do, and wrap/squeeze out the juice until the pulp is somewhat dry. If you don't do this the mix will separate into watery layers later.

Mix together the cucumber, Greek Yogurt, dill, salt, lemon... olive oil maybe as it may not need it for a better texture.

That's it. Pour yourself a glass of Ouzo, invite some friends, and get out the gyros.

Cute Cuke Bites

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 00:56:32 GMT

Another gluten-free/crowd pleasing nosh

You can almost assemble this appetizer just by looking at the picture:

Cut 1 inch chunks of cucumber, scoop out the center forming a tiny bowl, and fill the bowl.

These are filled with rough chopped almonds. Almonds don't get soggy in this mix even after a couple of days in the fridge like softer cashews would. Do take the time to de-skin them as the brown skin has a bitter taste. Soak the almonds in hot water and then slip the skin off.

Next, make them into a sandwich spread just like you do with chicken or tuna... mix in mayo, minced celery, minced onion, dill and lemon zest for fun. This is a "from scratch" recipe -- enough mayo to stick things together and enough added ingredients to keep it interesting.

Spoon it in the cuke bowls and top with something colorful.

Voila! You now have something that everyone will love.

For more tasty recipes, go here.

Veggie Sushi

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 00:25:01 GMT

The Cutting Edge? Avant Guard? Or just lazy...

Mary Hunt often thinks about how many years she could have been enjoying sushi at home, but thought it was too hard to make. Wrong! It takes a certain technique, but time wise it's ready in minutes. Sushi is like making a sandwich, just make sure something is between two slices of bread and you're good. In this case, whatever you want to roll up in sheets of nori and rice -- you're good.

Tip 1: Use white, short grain rice (sometimes named sushi rice on the package). Short grain rice is stickier. If you have a rice cooker or an instant pot, use it. You can be cutting up veggies while it's cooking.

Tip 2: Let the rice cool a bit before loading up on the nori (seaweed sheets) to make it easier to handle. (wet your hands, it's sticky)

Tip 3: Use about 2/3 cup rice to cover the sheet - it doesn't have to be solid, just make sure it reaches the edges and you leave about an inch on the one end.

Get creative - layer with something crunchy, something mushy, and something spicy. Here she used carrots, avocado, and pickled ginger.

Don't worry about the fancy bamboo rolling mats, a silicone mat or even parchment paper will be enough to help you start rolling. Grab and really tighten the first squeeze to get all the parts sticking together. (see below) Stop rolling before the last inch.

Tip 4: Dab water on the last inch before rolling up. If you do this too soon, it will curl up and you won't be able to roll it up.

Tip 5: Use your sharpest (non-serrated) knife to segment the roll. This is the difference between a crowd-pleasing and crowd-running presentation.

Serve with soy, sweet chili, or hoisin sauces. Top with more pickled ginger or wasabi.

For more tasty recipes, go here.

"Old Country" Beet Relish

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Wed, 19 Oct 2022 23:40:59 GMT

Jerome Zygar and Noreen Andrews for the winning combo

Calling this "old country" beet relish because many of you will recognize it from your grandmother's cookbook and they got it from their grandmother's kitchen. Back in the day when we had to depend on gardens for all our food, our foremothers also had to depend on ways to preserve it all. Beet relish became one of those options.

This version goes on top of salads, sandwiches, potatoes... or as a dipping sauce with pan-fried tofu. We know that last part probably pushed into your comfort zone, but seriously try the two together before you judge.

Talk about easy... you can make this version in minutes.

Polish Beet Relish

Fine grate 1-1/2 cup whole beets (or one can of beets)

Add

1 teaspoon sugar

2 teaspoon vinegar

1 Tablespoon horseradish (add more to taste)

Salt and Pepper to taste

Pan-tried Tofu Sticks for dipping

Freeze 1 lb firm or extra firm tofu. Thaw and squish between 2 plates to get the excess water out.
Cut tofu into strips, about 1/2 “ wide and 3-4 inches long. Place into a mixing bowl.
Combine your choice of spices. For example, Chinese 5-spice, curry, cumin, salt and pepper... (Grandma didn't follow recipes...)
Mix spices with ¼ flour and1/4 panko into a paper bag. Add tofu. Shake to coat.
Pan-fry tofu in sesame oil. When tofu is browned, sprinkle with soy sauce and shake the pan to distribute.

For more tasty recipes, go here.

Morgana's Greek Potato Salad

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Wed, 19 Oct 2022 23:07:11 GMT

No mayo. No eggs.

Morgana Bernard brought this simple twist on a potluck favorite to the

24-Carrot event . Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of her with dish in hand, but we did snag her recipe and recreated it here. It has all the deep flavors of summer without the mayo to cover them up or go bad on a hot day.

Ingredients

2 pounds Yukon Gold or red potatoes -- they hold their shape while Russets turn to mush.

1/3-1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 small onion - chopped

1-2 Tablespoons fresh oregano leaves - chopped

2 Tablespoons of lemon juice or vinegar

Instructions

Wash potatoes and boil for about 45 minutes, until pierced easily with a fork.*
Once potatoes are boiled run through cold water and peel.
Cut potatoes in bite sized chunks and place in bowl.
Mix the olive oil with the lemon juice (or vinegar) and add to the potatoes. Make sure the potatoes are warm so that they will absorb the olive oil well, and mix gently.
Add the onion and oregano (rub between your fingers to release the aroma) and blend.
Salt and pepper to taste.

* Cook's Tip option: If you peel potatoes first, chop into bite sized chunks and cook by steaming -- they'll cook more evenly. Stop cooking when they slip off a sharp knife and rinse under cold water.

For more tasty recipes, go here.

Cheap, Spicy, Curried Lentils

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Wed, 19 Oct 2022 16:24:07 GMT

Rach Stevenson reaches for red lentils for a filling and fast meal.

Every cook or starving student needs to know how to make a decent "Dal" to eat on its own or enjoy as a side dish with all those veggies coming out of the garden. Dal is high in protein, low in cost, and very addicting. It also travels well. Rach transported her event dish on the back of her bike.

NOTE: The above red seeds are what you're looking for in the store. They are the "inside" of brown lentils after the seed covers have been removed. Red lentils turn yellow when cooked and the curry/tumeric in this recipe pushes it further to the yellow side. Red lentils are not yellow split peas which look much the same. Because the seed cover is removed, red lentils cook much faster than brown, green, or black lentils.

How to Dal

Saute...

2 Tbsp cooking oil

1 chopped onion

2 chopped garlic cloves

1 inch chopped piece of ginger

Stir in...

1 Tbsp curry power

1 tsp. ground turmeric

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Add

1 cup of red lentils

4 cups vegetable stock. (or 2 cups if in the instant pot)

Saute everything (about 5 minutes) except the lentils and stock.

Add lentils and stock. Cover and simmer until lentils are cooked - about 30 minutes. Or do the above in an instant pot and use 2 cups of veggie stock and set the timer for 5 minutes.

TIP: Instant pots retain water instead of boiling off on top of the stove, and therefore you can use less. Basic IP rule 1 cup lentils to 1.75-2 cups liquid. Cooking with an Instant Pot also helps to retain the lentil shape seen above instead of turning it into mush. Mush is still good, just a different texture. Play with both options and see what you like.

Of course you can always turn 50 cents of curried lentils into a $30 meal by spooning it into a baked mini squash with the seeds taken out. (bake the whole squash, slice off the top, scoop out the seeds and add curried lentils to the squash bowl.)

For more tasty recipes, go here.

Apple Sauce Triathlon

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 15:20:23 GMT

Cook. Chop. Chill. Repeat. (For eight hours)

Above (left to right): Janice Pastor, Seth Rolland, Kathy Darrow, and Suzanne Wilson with happy smiles at the end of a long day.

What do you do on a sunny October Sunday? When given apples, PT Gleaners make applesauce. A huge thank you to Katie Appleyard, Bobi Beery, Kathy Darrow, Mike Farrell, Mary Hunt, Stacey Larsen, Jim Moore, Janice Pastor, Tom Pendley, Seth Rolland, Doug Van Allen, and Suzanne Wilson. An additional thank you to David Engle for use of his compressor.

The herculean effort produced 1700 pounds of sauce: 1590 pounds of sauce (212 gallons) to be used in Port Townsend and Chimacum school lunches; some of it will also end up at the Food Banks and the Recovery Café.

Arriving at 7:30 am at the Blue Heron Middle School kitchen dock, the volunteer crew unloaded 4 truckloads of apples that were hand picked by gleaners over the past couple of weeks. As fast as they were unloaded, the chopping, cooking, and chilling stations were set up. The crew was encouraged to try their hands at all stations to cross-train as well as give themselves a break from repetitive tasks. Taking breaks became even more important as the day unfolded -- it was the biggest amount of apples sauced, ever. In prior years the saucing took place over many weekends, but this time due to a less abundant crop and the need, it was decided to tackle the harvest all in one day.

By the numbers:

They started with 3265 total pounds of apples picked and hand sorted.

2755 pounds were chopped, cooked, and chilled into sauce

380 pounds were taken to Chimacum schools for cider

130 pounds were held for the Gleaner Cider Party on Oct. 30

The remaining poundage either didn't make the cut or was what was created when the stems, skins, and seeds were removed from the sauce

The result: 1700 pounds or 224 gallons.

CHOP

Apples were first sorted by hand and divided between saucing or cider making at Chimacum schools and the Gleaner party. (Bad apples went directly into the bin for composting.) Saucing apples were then washed and run through the chipper into a 5 gallon pail where they were carried to the kitchen.

COOK

Seven pails of chopped up apples went into the big steam kettle. (Five pails into the smaller steam kettle.) When the mash reached 180 degrees, the steam lid was clamped down to boil them for five more minutes. Fully cooked mash was then carefully poured into "Fabio" the Italian sauce maker machine one pitcher full at a time. At that point the hot mash was pushed through a screen separating all the seeds, skins, and stems out -- sending the cleaned sauce in one container and the roughage into another.

CHILL

In order for the sauce to cool before going into the freezer for keeps, the sauce was run through water cooled pipes to bring the temperature down. It's no small task as apple sauce is very thick and doesn't like to give up its heat, but the killer chiller machine does the trick by running the sauce through metal pipes surrounded with larger pipes holding cold water. The heat transfers to the metal and then the water and the now cooled sauce is ready to go into the freezer for the final big chill.

It's not a simple process, or fast, but it is efficient and an example of what can be accomplished when one person wondered, "How can we use the excess of apples growing in our backyards?"

The Not-So-Humble Shepard's Pie

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Fri, 14 Oct 2022 15:42:49 GMT

Ruth Blyther has Two Secrets in her Delish Dish

Raise you hand if you have not made a Shepard's Pie yet. It's a great potluck dish that always wins raves, but this one puts it over the top with coconut milk and bbq sauce. Ruth also topped it with some melted cheese. This dish can be made vegan or vegetarian and with whatever is in your garden or needs to be eaten up in the fridge.

Try it on cold winter's night.

Garlic Mashed Potatoes for the topping

(Taken from "It Doesn't Taste Like Chicken)

Ingredients

4 pounds russet or yukon gold potatoes, peeled and quartered
1 cup full-fat coconut milk (the kind in a can)
1 cup plant-based milk (such as soy or almond)
6 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1 ½ - 2 ½ teaspoons salt (or to taste)

Instructions

Add the potatoes to a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and continue to cook until the potatoes are fork-tender, 10 - 15 minutes. Remove from heat and drain the water off of the potatoes.
In the meantime, in a medium saucepan combine coconut milk, plant-based milk, and garlic. Bring to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes until fragrant and the garlic is cooked.
Pour about half of the garlic milk over the potatoes and use a potato masher to mash the potatoes. Add more of the garlic milk until you reach the consistency you like. (I usually use all of the garlic milk mixture). If you use all of the garlic and milk mixture and you would still like the potatoes softer, just add more coconut milk or plant-based milk until you reach the desired consistency. Season with salt to taste.

Base of the "Shepard's Pie"

Ingredients

1 tablespoon oil (olive, canola, vegetable)
1 onion , chopped
2 carrots , peeled and chopped
16 oz mushrooms , sliced
4 cloves garlic , minced
2 teaspoons dried thyme leaves
1 ½ cups brown or green lentils (or 38oz canned lentils, see notes)
3 cups vegetable broth (or 1 vegetable bouillon cube, see notes)
1 cup peas , fresh or frozen
2 tablespoons soy sauce
¼ cup BBQ sauce
1 recipe for (above) Garlic/Coconut Mashed Potatoes.

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425F (220C).
Heat the oil in a large frying pan or skillet over medium-high heat. Add in the onion, carrots, mushrooms, garlic, and thyme and sauté for 6 to 8 minutes until softened and bits are browned. Remove from pan, and set aside.
Return the pan to heat, add in the lentils, and vegetable broth. Cover, and simmer for 25 - 30 minutes until the broth is absorbed and the lentils are tender. While the lentils cook, prepare the mashed potatoes according to the directions.
Add the vegetables back to the pan with the lentils, and add the peas, BBQ sauce, and soy sauce. Heat through. Scoop the mixture into a casserole dish or large skillet and then spread the mashed potatoes on top.
Bake for 10 - 15 minutes until the pie is hot and bubbling around the edges.

Both dishes taken from "It Doesn't Taste Like Chicken".

For more tasty recipes, go here.

Mizuna Salad

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Mon, 10 Oct 2022 21:12:36 GMT

Cheryl Lowe shakes it up with a

peppery & sweet mixture.

Lettuce by itself is boring, but when mixed with the feistiness of Mizuna (pictured above) and mellowed out with apple bits and sunflower seeds,

then given a sweet/sour dressing... boredom is vanquished.

Salad Base

Mizuna leaves (washed, dried, chopped)

Lettuce (washed, dried, chopped)

Apple - 1/2 to 1 apple (cut in matchsticks)

Sunflower seeds 1/2 cup

Cooked Quinoa 1-2 cups

Dressing / mix together / shake well and let set to marry the flavors.

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 tsp garlic power (or 2 small fresh cloves)

1 tsp lemon juice

2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 Tbsp maple syrup

Toss dressing with salad and serve as a main dish or a hearty sideshow.

For more tasty recipes, go here.

Cucumber/Lime Aqua Fresca

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Sat, 08 Oct 2022 03:11:50 GMT

When life gives Clair Eike too many cucumbers, she drinks them in.

.... And serve the Fresca with a lovely salmon quiche. (pictured above and with the rough recipe below) She generously brought both to the 24-Carrot event .

The Cucumber/Lime Aqua Fresca (below) is completely refreshing on a hot day and you can only eat so many pickles, right? This recipe make a lot of juice. Freeze it and enjoy in the middle of winter when you need a summer's day fix.

Ingredients

4 large cukes with skin on, cubed

2 whole limes with peel, cubed & de-seeded

2/4 cup fresh squeezed lime juice

12-15 fresh mint leaves

Ginger to taste

Water

In a blender, puree all ingredients with 2-4 cups of water. Strain through a sieve. Add enough water to fill a 1 gallon pitcher to the top

Refrigerate and serve cold.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Salmon Custard/Quiche

(pp. 244-45) enough for 3 pie crusts

(adapted from Baking Illustrated, American Test Kitchen, 2004)

Pie Crust - buy or make your own. Pre-bake to set the crust.

Mix

6 large eggs

6 additional egg yolks

2 cups of whole milk

2 cups of heavy cream

6 tablespoons dry sherry

7-8 Tbsp. chopped fresh chives

Fold into the above

3 cups of cooked coho salmon (from Key City) seasoned with lemon zest and juice.

6 ounces of grated Gruyere & Fontina cheese

Salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper

For more tasty recipes go here.

Carrot Cupcakes for every Diet

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Sat, 08 Oct 2022 01:23:47 GMT

Gluten Free, Vegan, Vegetarian, and binge worthy

What's a 24-Carrot tasting event without carrot cake?

These morsels are fussy to make, but so worth it. Add an edible flower on top of the white "sour cream" frosting and voila! It becomes a party cake that anyone can enjoy. FYI: We tried these with regular flour, too, and they turned out denser and less "cake like" than with the gluten-free flour.

Note: this recipe could have nuts added, but many people are allergic to them. It's best to leave them out if you are serving an unknown crowd.

Mix together:

2.5 cups (12.5 oz) of Bob's Red Mill Gluten-free all purpose flour blend.

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1-1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1-1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

pinch of cloves

pinch of ground ginger

1 teaspoon salt

Grate 1 pound of carrots (do grate them, the thin pieces cook better in the batter.)

Add the flour mixture to the carrots and mix until all carrots are coated.

Make and set aside:

4 flax "eggs" by using 4 tablespoons of ground flax meal with 8 tablespoons of water. (1/4 cup ground flax meal and 3/4 cup water.) Allow to rest 15 minutes and soak up the water.

Blend in a food processor or blender:

The above flax eggs

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup light brown sugar

While the processor/blender is running, drizzle 3/4 cup vegetable oil into the mixture until it's well emulsified and frothy.

Mix the carrot mixture in with the sugar/flax/oil mixture.

Fill cupcakes close to the top of each cup. This batter doesn't rise much.

Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes. Cool completely before frosting.

Frosting

8 cups of gluten-free powdered sugar

1-1/2 cups (3 sticks) or vegan butter (Earth Balance works well)

3 Tablespoons non-dairy milk

1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar

2 teaspoon lemon juice

pinch of salt

Cook's Tip: If you grate/shred the butter into the powdered sugar, you can mix everything by hand until smooth. The smaller pieces blend faster.

Recipe makes 18 cupcakes.

Adapted from America's Test Kitchen by (camera shy) Mike Farrell.

For more tasty recipes, go here.

Tomato Chutney

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Sat, 08 Oct 2022 00:17:55 GMT

Alden and Judith Johnson make the most of a bumper crop of tomatoes

Small Batch

3 cups diced tomatoes. You can leave the skin on.

1/2 cup or raisins

3 T Small Capers

2 T Ginger, finely minced

1 T Crystalized Ginger

1 T Garlic minced

3/4 cup Sugar

1/2 cup White-wine Vinegar

1/8 t. All spice

Large Batch (for when you have too many green tomatoes...)

6 cups diced tomatoes. You can leave the skin on.

1 cup or raisins

6 T Small Capers

4 T Ginger, finely minced

2 T Crystalized Ginger

2 T Garlic minced

1-1/2 cup Sugar

1 cup White-wine Vinegar

1/4 t. All spice

In a heavy open pot, mix all ingredients together on medium heat and let simmer until thickened (around 1-1/2 to 2 hours). Stir occasionally and don't let it get too thick as it will jell even more when it cools.

Place in covered jars. It will keep for up to a year in the refrigerator.

How to use:

With crackers and cream cheese.

Add to cream cheese and apple or pear sliced sandwiches.

Mix with potatoes for a different version of a German potato salad.

Mary Hunt also brought canned Green Tomato Chutney to give away. It's almost the same recipe -- compare/contrast/get creative. Chutney is a wild mixture of chunky/sweet/sour/savory.

Green Tomato Chutney Ingredients

6 cups of green tomatoes (cubed up with skins)

6 cups of red onion (chopped)

1 cup of raisins

3 garlic cloves (minced)

1/4 tsp black pepper

2 tsp. sea salt

2-1/2 cups brown sugar

4-1/2 cups apple cider vinegar

Put it all in one, stainless steel pot and simmer down about 2 hours until thick, but not jammy. It will get thicker as it cools.

For more tasty recipes, go here.

Chick Pea Salad

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Fri, 07 Oct 2022 21:19:24 GMT

Alex Rossoff dishes on chick peas

You know those wonderful salads you see featured in the deli cases, this is one of them you can make at home. Chickpeas are just the beginning and then you add layers of color and texture before mixing together into a dish that will last for days in the fridge. This is another reason everyone needs parsley growing in their garden.

Chickpea Salad

Add into one bowl:

1/2 cup chickpeas

2 lemon cucumbers

14 cherry tomatoes

2/3 cup feta cheese

1/2 chopped orange colored pepper

3 sprigs of parsley chopped

2 big leaves of basil

Garlic salt to taste

1/2 teaspoon cumin

Add a light pour of olive oil to dress before mixing together.

That's it! We told you it was easy.

For more tasty recipes go here.

Apple Sauce Bars

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Fri, 07 Oct 2022 19:09:27 GMT

A six star cake from Amy Does

This recipe has stood the test of time. It's from the 1972 edition of "The New York Times Heritage Cookbook" by Jean Hewitt. Amy bought the book and has been bringing the bars ever since which earns it six stars in any household.

Do you need a new way to use up all those apples from the backyard orchard? Get baking!

Apple Sauce Bars

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1 1/2 cups applesauce (unsweetened, spice-free)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 1/4 cups flour

1 cup raisins

confectioner's sugar

How To...

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (the recipe calls for 375 degrees but my pyrex pan should not be heated above 350)

2. Cream the butter and granulated sugar together until light and fluffy. Stir in the applesauce

3. Mix together the cinnamon, cloves, salt, baking soda, and flour and stir into the batter. Fold in the raisins

4. Turn the batter into a well-greased 9X13 inch baking pan and bake about 25-30 minutes.

5. Sprinkle with confectioners sugar (Amy used a cardstock stencil of stars to make patterns on the cake top)

For more tasty recipes go here.

Newsletter October 2022

foodbankgrowers@gmail.com (Mary Hunt) — Thu, 06 Oct 2022 21:09:44 GMT

Good Morning Growers!

Welcome to all the new folks that joined the newsletter! Whether we met you this summer at the Farmer's Market, the Port Ludlow Opportunity Fair, or Farm Tour, thanks for stopping by. We strive to grow produce and grow community to fight food insecurity here in Jefferson County. If you are new and want to learn more about our mission, values, and the work we do, check out our website: foodbankgrowers.org

As the growing season continues to slowly wind down thanks to these warm and dry Fall days, we are beginning to plan for the winter and upcoming year. With that is mind, we are starting to look for new Board Members, Committee Members, and Garden Managers. There are lots of ways to get involved. If you are curious about what it's like to be an at-large Board Member or join the Finance Committee or play a role in managing a garden, please reach out. I would love to talk more about what getting involved can look like.

And if you are ready to just get started in the garden by getting your hands dirty as a volunteer, let me know! Just because the growing season is over doesn't mean there isn't still work to be done with Fall harvest and lots of bed preparation for winter.

Keep reading for class opportunities, a Farm Tour Recap, and some photos from our 24 Carrot Potluck Party.

Master Gardeners Class: Growing Small Fruits for the Home Garden

Home grown fruit is one of the most delicious and economically effective ways to grow groceries in your home garden. Blueberries, Raspberries, Strawberries and Currants (for those of you with shady gardens) are expensive to buy and relatively easy to grow. Recommended varieties and caring for these small fruits will be presented in two zoom lectures. Join us now to start or improve your small fruit harvest next spring and summer.

Registrants will be invited to join a field trip to FinnRiver, day and time TBA.

Fruit trees will not be covered in this session, but will be the topic of a future offering.

2022 Farm Tour

We were so lucky to have such a beautiful weekend for Farm Tour this year. Our booth at Swan Farm was wonderfully highlighted by the many sunflowers that are still blooming there. Our sunflower seed packets were a big hit (thanks, Barbara!), as were the bay leaves from Birchyville. We also had Mary Hunt representing FBG and Red Hen at RainCoast Farms.

If you stopped by, it was great meeting you! Send us a picture of the sunflowers blooming in your yard next year!

September Volunteer Opportunities

Quimper Grange
1219 Corona Ave

Tues, Fri 1-4pm
Join for harvesting, weeding, watering, and any other tasks you may be interested in!

Birchyville
206 Hancock St

M, W, F - 10-12
Earn You Eggs!
With chickens and ducks at the Birchyville Food Bank Garden there are opportunities to work in the gardens and get to know the animals. You can even earn a dozen eggs when you volunteer!

24 Carrot Party

Thanks to RainCoast Farms , we were able to host a beautiful volunteer celebration this month. With representatives from nearly every garden, we mingled in the vineyards before sharing the garden harvest inspired dishes that everyone had brought to share. From cucumber agua fresca to lentil curry and vegan carrot cupcakes, there was something for everyone. Humongous thanks to Margaret of RainCoast Farms for the providing the beautiful space and to Mary Hunt for the vision and execution of a fabulous evening.

Keep your eyes peeled on the recipe section of the website . We will be sharing the recipes of each dish that was brought to the table that night. Who knows, maybe you will find you family's new favorite!

Cold Cucumber Soup

for the lingering Summer Days

This recipe idea is from Morgana, a volunteer at the Grange! While Soup Season is slowly approaching, it seems like these warm days aren't willing to let go yet. Get your soup fix on a hot October day with some Cold Cucumber Soup!

6 cucumbers, thinly sliced, reserve a few slices for garnish
1½ cups plain whole milk Greek yogurt
¾ cup fresh basil
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil, more for drizzling
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons fresh dill
1 garlic clove
¾ teaspoon sea salt
½ teaspoon honey
Freshly ground black pepper
Fresh mint, dill, or chives, for garnish

In a blender, combine the cucumbers, yogurt, basil, olive oil, lemon juice, dill, garlic, salt, honey, and several grinds of pepper and blend until smooth. Chill for at least 4 hours.
Serve in bowls and garnish with the reserved cucumber slices, fresh herbs, drizzles of olive oil, and freshly ground black pepper.

Raw Beet Salad

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Thu, 06 Oct 2022 14:34:02 GMT

Brought to you by Hilary Newell

Zip up a dinner and your diet with a serving of beets with citrus. Grower Hilary Newell introduced us to this colorful dish which should be good for days in the fridge. It's great on it's own , topping a salad , or adding crunch and color into a sandwich.

Ingredients

3 medium to large fresh beets (peeled and trimmed)

1 valencia orange with zest

1 lime with zest

2 tablespoons olive oil

Salt to taste

1/2 cup chives (minced)

How To…

Shread beets and add to bowl.

Add zest and juice from entire orange

Add zest and juice from lime to taste (this amount is subjective).

Add olive oil and salt - toss to combine.

Top with minced chives before serving.

For more tasty recipes go here.

Quick Pickled Onions

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Wed, 05 Oct 2022 16:57:17 GMT

Served up by Mary and Mark Paxton

If you haven't pickled onions yet, now is the time to start. They are wonderful on salads, sandwiches, or topping off appetizers. Mark is holding the jar of onion goodness with the how-to recipe below.

(The prior post contains the recipe for the the Zucchini Fritter Mary is holding.)

Ingredients

1 large red onion, thinly sliced.

Tip: Cut in half top to bottom first and then slice to have long sections of onion that will hold their shape better.

1 tsp peppercorns

1/2 tsp mustard seed

1/4 tsp fennel seed

1 sprig of rosemary

1 cup water

1 cup white wine vinegar

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup sugar

1 Tbsp honey

How to...

Heat vinegar, water, sugar, and honey -- stirring until everything is dissolved.

Add herbs and spiced mixture.

Pour over onions and let cool.

Keeps in the fridge up to two weeks.

Taken from The Seattle Times. For more taste tested recipes go here.

Zucchini and Feta Fritters

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Wed, 05 Oct 2022 16:32:14 GMT

Prepared by Mary and Mark Paxton

Dine-in duo Mary and Mark know what to do with the OVER abundance of zucchini in the late summer -- make fritters -- shown here at the 24-Carrot Tasting party. What a lovely main dish fritters make - and cheap! (Mark is holding a jar of quick pickles which we'll write up on a later post.)

Ingredients

1 pound zucchini, grated

4 oz. feta, crumbled

2 scallions, minced

2 large eggs, beaten (or two flax eggs* if you can't eat eggs)

2 T or more minced fresh herbs (recipe calls for dill, they used shiso, parsley and mint)

1 garlic clove, minced

1/4 cup flour

Olive oil for frying

Lemon wedges

Salt and pepper

Directions

Mix the top ingredients together to form a batter and set aside.

Toss zucchini with 1 tsp. salt and let drain in a strainer. (The salt pulls the water out of the zucchini.)

Wrap zucchini in a towel and squeeze dry.

Combine dried zucchini with the batter.

Drop generous spoonfuls onto hot, oiled pan. Fry until golden brown.

Serve with lemon wedges or a yogurt-based sauce.

* Flax egg = 1 tablespoon of flax meal with 2 tablespoons water. It's also a good fix for those times you run out of eggs.

Taken from The Complete Mediterranean Cookbook. For more taste tested recipes go here.

Backyard Cherry Pie Crumble

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Tue, 04 Oct 2022 13:08:12 GMT

Hand picked by Kathy Darrow

Photo by Kathy Darrow

Admit it, we LOVE cherry pie, but making a crust may keep us from putting in the effort. FBG Gleaner Kathy Darrow has a work around that solves that tedious problem with delicious results -- just crumble the crust.

Her recipe starts with growing her own sour cherries via a backyard tree and ends with a bit of ice cream on top.

Pitting tip: Placethe cherries under water in a deep bowl before you start pitting. When the cherry juice goes everywhereduring the act of pitting, it will go into the surrounding water and not all over your clothes creating stains that will never wash out.

Cherry Pie Crumble

Ingredients for crumble crust:

6 T. butter, softened

½ cup brown sugar

1 t. vanilla

½ cup flour

¼ t. baking soda

½ t. ground cinnamon

1 ½ cup rolled oats

1 cup almond flour

Blend butter, sugar and vanilla

Sift together flour, baking soda and cinnamon

Stir flour mixture int butter mixture

Stir in oats

Stir in almond flour

Press half of oat mixture in a buttered 8 x8 inch pan

Ingredients for filling:

1 ½ cups fresh or frozen sour cherries

2/3 cup sugar

¼ cup corn starch

Heat cherries in sauce pan till juices are bubbling

Blend sugar and cornstarch in a bowl

Stir in sugar/cornstarch mixture to hot cherries

Lower heat and stir till thickened

Cool

Spread cherries onto crumble mix

Sprinkle remaining crumble over cherries and gently press

Bake at 350 F for 30 minutes or until lightly browned.

Let cool before cutting.

For more taste tested recipes go here.

Planting with Seed Saving in Mind

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Thu, 22 Sep 2022 21:06:56 GMT

October 6th - 2-4 pm at Oatsplanter Farm

Located on site at: 6131 Cape George Road, Port Townsend.

Come full circle at this informative session taught by Jadyne Reichner and Steve Habersetzer of Oatsplanter Farm. They will show us their fall garden and teach us how to select and save the best seeds and how to harvest, clean and store seeds.

Learn how to save money and have stronger and stronger crops that grow well under your garden conditions.

Thank you seedlibrary wsu@gmail.com

Pictures from the How to Save Seed session.

Growing Groceries

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Wed, 21 Sep 2022 23:00:58 GMT

Small Fruit Growing ZOOM Oct. 12th

This fall the Master Gardeners’ Growing Groceries Team is offering a free short lecture series on Growing Small Fruits for the Home Garden!

Wednesday, Oct 12, 2022 06:0 0 PM
Wednesday, Oct 19, 2022 06:00 PM

Register via Zoom: https://tinyurl.com/bdcrmwfh

Home grown fruit is one of the most delicious and economically effective ways to grow groceries in your home garden. Blueberries, Raspberries, Strawberries and Currants (for those of you with shady gardens) are expensive to buy, but relatively easy to grow at home. Recommended varieties and caring for these small fruits will be presented in two zoom lectures. Join us now to start or improve your small fruit harvest next spring and summer.

Fruit trees will not be covered in this session but will be the topic of a future offering.

Pounds of Parsnips

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Tue, 20 Sep 2022 21:59:25 GMT

32 pounds in one pulling

Mary Pendergast and Hilary Newell show off about 10 minutes of work of pulling parsnips. The ground was so fluffy that we didn't need to dig anything, just grab a bunch, pull and shake the dirt off.

While we could have left half the bed in place for another month and they would have all become larger, we wanted to see if allocating one 4 x 10 foot bed was worth the months it took to get them to the pulling stage. The answer was YES -- it's so worth it!

We planted four rows of parsnip seeds in March along with lettuce starts in the space between the rows. The lettuce took off in the spring weather and was picked while the parsnips seeds took two weeks in the ground before they showed themselves. By the time the lettuce was done for the season, the parsnips were eight inches high. After that, we waited... and waited six months -- except for pulling a few tiny weeds, we put no work into the 20 inch tall bed. (parsnips need lots of deep soil with few rocks to keep them growing straight). We should note that the bed was also irrigated and had a constant source of water.

If you have a little space and want a continual source of winter roots, this is the way to go.

The bounty was taken to the Tri-Area Food Bank where it was gratefully received.

P.S. As an added bonus, besides lettuce in the spring, the parsnips shared their space with the prior year's potatoes that were hiding in the soil. (once you have potatoes you always have potatoes...) We had a seven pound yield of them as well. Win Win!

Newsletter September 2022

foodbankgrowers@gmail.com (Mary Hunt) — Thu, 08 Sep 2022 16:05:58 GMT

24 Carrot Potluck, Gobbling Cobbler, and September Gardening Tips

As a very busy Summer begins to shift towards to cooler days, we have lots to recap from the last month! From our plant sale to our winter growing class and well over 1200# of fruits and veggies donated.

Though the days are getting shorter, we haven't run out of steam just yet! September looks to be a busy month with Farm Tour just around the corner and our delicious 24 Carrot Potluck Party! Keep reading for more details.

Our Winter Growing Series was a huge success! The Winter Growing Zoom Class hosted by the WSU Master Gardeners and FBG was taught by Nita Wester and Lys Burden. The class addressed some things such as soil preparation; appropriate vegetable varieties; what can still be planted, plant spacing; frost, wind, rain, snow protection; and watering. The class was recorded and can be watched here , free of charge.

The Winter Growing Panel and Tour at the Quimper Grange was a great opportunity for folks to see winter growing in action. The Panel featured Doug Van Allen, Nita Wester, Jacob and Turner of Water Moon Farm, Barbara Tusting, and Kathy Ryan. They addressed winter systems such as growing carrots in pots, row covers, hoop houses, additional lighting to harvesting cover crops for food, a variety of possibilities for increasing harvests from home gardens to small-scale production gardens. After the panel there was a tour of the Grange Garden to check out these processes in action!

A new blog post on the website showcases how the gleaners determine what fruit to pick and when! Check out this article to read about a handful of fruit determinations such as Italian Plums, Cherries, Apples, and Figs! Another Gleaners blog post discusses ladder safety, proudly stating that "falling is for apples, not gleaners" and I think we all agree. That post includes a video as well!

Our "Grow A Row" plant sale was another big success!

We sold loads of winter veggie starts, lots of garden bed tunnel kits, and made lots of great connections! Shout out to the 7 folks who pledged to "grow a row" for the food banks and the many more who look forward to trying out winter growing for the first time!

Huge thanks to all the volunteers who made it happen, especially the fabulous lead Barbara Tusting!

P.S. check out our amazing new Plant Sale sign painted by our very own Boat School Garden Manager, Lisa P. New Paragraph

September Volunteer Opportunities

Swan Farm
10632 Rhody Dr

Fridays: Sept 2 & 9, 9AM-11AM
Monday: September 12, 4:30 - 6PM
We are getting Swan Farm ready for Farm Tour later this month!
Come help us weed, mulch, and generally keep it looking spiffy and ready to show off to our neighbors!

Quimper Grange
1219 Corona Ave

Tues, Fri 1-4pm
Join for harvesting, weeding, watering, and any other tasks you may be interested in!

Birchyville
206 Hancock St

Cobbler Gobbler

Well it's that time of year when all your favorite stone fruits and berries are just begging to be baked! Check out this easy cobbler recipe that could be used for any combination of sweet, juicy fruit for a late summer day delight! Can easily substitute gluten free flour, alternative milks or sugars! This recipe is easy to play with and share with the whole family.

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup butter
2 cups fresh fruit
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Steps:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Melt butter in a 9 x 9 inch baking dish.
Blend together flour, baking powder, sugar, milk, and walnuts.
Pour batter in baking dish over the butter. Sprinkle fruit on top of the batter, do not stir. Bake for 1 hour or until golden brown.

When and How to Pick Fruit

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Mon, 29 Aug 2022 19:13:07 GMT

Many Trees are Watched. Few Are Chosen.

Tree Checking and General Considerations:

Does the fruit taste good? (except for pears which we pick under ripe)
Does the fruit look appealing? (unless we're picking for cider or sauce)
Is there enough to bother? (or should you just pick the few there while checking)
Is it easy to pick? (tree height, level ground, other hazards)

JUDGING RIPENESS

General Rules: Fruit on the outside of the tree, and on the sunny side will be riper than fruit in the center. Fruit on the ground is much riper and not a good indicator of what's on the tree.

Cherries: should taste good and ripe, these do not ripen off the tree. Check for bug damage (brown on end or in center).

Shiro and other juicy plums: should taste sweet, and not too crunchy, these will ripen off the tree. However, we don't want to pick them when they are too soft and fragile or they'll turn to mush in the box. The ones on the sunny side will be riper. We want to pick when the majority are perfect -- sweet but not too soft.

Italian plums: should taste sweet and a little tart, and not too crunch y , these will not ripen off the tree. We usually need to pick Italian plums twice about 7-10 days apart as they ripen in stages.

Figs: Ideally they should be very soft, but not quite breaking apart in your hand. They should taste sweet and juicy. Usually we pick a fig tree twice, about a week apart as they ripen in stages.

Apples and Asian Pears: Should taste sweet/tart and juicy, not sour and no "chalky" texture. The fruit should come off easily with a lift and twist. Seed should be brown to black. If seeds are whi t e, check again in two weeks, if staring to turn brown, check again in a week. Falling fruit does not mean it is ripe, but if too much is falling it's really nice looking fruit, we can pick and store them for a week or two to ripen up. The will ripen off the tree, but we have very limited storage, so prefer to keep them on the tree until picking when possible. Bugs and Blemishes: Unless we are picking for cider or applesauce, these need to be attractive enough that someone will choose it out of a box to eat it. Look for bug damage, some trees are very buggy. Look for brown flecks around the blossom end or very small holes in the skin. Cut a few open to check.

Pears: These are tricky because we must pick them a little unripe, and ripen them off the tree, or they will turn brown in the middle. One of the best tests is that they should come off the tree with a lift and twist, not a lot of pulling. If they are starting to fall, we are a tiny bit late, and should pick them as soon as possible. You can also feel for a subtle amount of "give" near the stem (that will be the ripest part since they ripen from the center out). Also, you should be able to taste a little bit of sweetness. Seeds should be a little bit white, but starting to turn brown. Bugs and blemishes: these need to be attractive enough that someone will choose it out of a box to eat it. Look for bug damage, some trees are very buggy. Look for brown flecks around the blossom end or very small holes in the skin. Cut a few open to check.

If you want to volunteer to glean, please let us know here.

For more information on the PT Gleaners click here.

Submitted by Kathy Darrow and Suzanne Wilson.

Orchard Ladder Safety Tips

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Mon, 29 Aug 2022 18:11:06 GMT

Falling is for apples, not gleaners

Do we really need to know how to climb a ladder? When you're using one that's perhaps 12 foot tall and on three legs - YES!

At the first gleaning meeting Seth Rolland gave us a run down on good orchard ladder use and when/how not to use it. Thank you Kathy Darrow and Suzanne Wilson for this tip summary.

Watch this fun video for visuals:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zTUJ9_29b8

*Wear good shoes with closed toes

*Wear comfortable clothing so you can have freedom of movement

*Choose the right height ladder for the tree you are picking.

*Check your ladders before picking:

Inspect for cracks, dents, loose bolts, corrosion, mud and other slip hazards.

Make sure tongue (hinged pole) is firmly attached

Mark ladders that need repair, or repair it before you use it.

*Place ladder so that when toes are even with bottom of ladder, outstretched arms reach the siderails; if fingers don’t reach side rails or arms are bent, the ladder needs to be adjusted.

*Make sure the bottom of ladder is firmly in place by hopping on the bottom rung a few times.

*Only use the ladder on soil, never on pavement or indoors.

*Maintain 3 points of contact with the ladder at all times.

*Keep hands on side rails, not rungs.

*Keep center of your feet on the rungs (not tippy toes or heels).

*Face the ladder (not sideways or backwards).

*Never step on the top rung.

*Belt buckle rule: Don’t reach out too far from the ladder; keep the center of your belt between rungs of the ladder. If you have to reach further, move the ladder.

*Avoid stepping or leaning on tree branches to reach fruit.

*Be mindful of people, dogs and vehicles moving around the ladder.

Click here for more info on the PT Gleaners.

Grow A Row FBG Plant Sale Results

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Tue, 23 Aug 2022 22:59:04 GMT

Many gardens will be growing veggies all winter.

The event was very well attended with a LOT of interest about what we were doing, and why. Many people were not aware that our group (Food Bank Growers) is a separate organization and not an arm of the Jefferson County Food Banks.

We sold over half of our plants and will be giving the rest out to our gardens to grow out. We also sold out of the pre-assembled Low Tunnel Kits. Thank you Lisa P. for the idea, and to Noreen for her help in assembling extra kits on the spot. A kit included 15’ of AgriBon 30, 3-#10 gauge wire hoops, and 11 clothespins. As part of the winter growing community the new Low Tunnel Kit owners will receive tips on how to produce food even in February and March.

Seven people pledged to Grow a Row for the Food Banks and many more people were excited about trying it for themselves. A Swan School teacher who is just starting her soils science project, bought all the remaining Family Science Kits, and wants a bunch more start for the school. A new PT resident, Cleo Pirtle, is a retired soils science teach, and wants to help our group with how to improve our soils!

So many great new connections made for a good fund and friend raiser.

Many thanks to the entire team: Birch, Sophie, Mark, Mary P, Mary H, Mary Beth, Noreen, Lisa, Arlene, Morgana, Ralph, Ellen, JJ, Lys, Kathy, Emmy Lou, and everyone else who made this such a success.

Bean There. Did That.

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 03:10:00 GMT

Yellow on the left. Green on the Right.

Earlier this year we saw this same arch at Alice's garden with spring lettuce living under it, t hen peas growing up the fencing , and now pole beans are making their appearance.

Make the most of a small space with bent fencing. Underneath the yellow and green beans the shaded open ground is home to some winter brassicas.

The gardening credit goes to lead grower,Belinda Jimenez. Well done!

Boost Your Winter Harvest

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Mon, 08 Aug 2022 23:01:43 GMT

ON LINE and IN PERSON Winter Gardening Classes

Jefferson County WSU Extension Master Gardeners and Food Bank Growers are organizing two events designed to boost the produce harvested from home and community gardens this winter. Register now for either event or both.

ZOOM: Winter Gardening: Basics

When: Aug 23, 2022 06:30 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Watch a video of the above session.

Master Gardeners Lys Burden and Nita Wester will outline the cultivation practices that make harvesting produce from your garden — November through March — more likely. Soil preparation; appropriate vegetable varieties; what can still be planted, plant spacing; frost, wind, rain, snow protection; watering will be covered.

https://wsu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMtdOyqqD0qGtdYXiKCqqoQL-I2oEejvmkm

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

In-Person Panel at the Quimper Grange, 1219 Corona Ave, Port Townsend

Tuesday, August 30

6:00 - 7:30pm

Local gardeners who have been successful growing, storing and harvesting produce during winter months will share their systems and take your questions,from growing carrots in pots, row covers, hoop houses, additional lighting to harvesting cover crops for food, a variety of possibilities for increasing harvests from home gardens to small-scale production gardens will be reviewed. A tour of winter plantings at the Quimper Grange Food Bank Garden is included.

Please Note: Attendance is limited to space available. The Quimper Grange Hall requires those attending to show proof of vaccination including one booster.

Email: FoodBankGrowers@gmail.com . After registering, you will receive a confirmation email with further instructions. Visit us at FoodBankGrowers.org.

Newsletter August 2022

foodbankgrowers@gmail.com (Mary Hunt) — Wed, 03 Aug 2022 14:11:44 GMT

Grow A Row Fundraiser, Nitrogen Fixers, and Quick Pickles!

Good Morning Growers, Gatherers, and Givers!

We're glad you're here!

Our 'Grow A Row' Plant Sale Fundraiser is right around the corner! On Saturday, August 20 from 10am-2pm at the Birchyville Food Bank Garden we will be selling cold crop starts, hoops to protect your winter beds, and some miscellaneous plants such as fruit trees and ornamentals. Encouraging our community to 'Grow A Row' means we want to equip you with the tools and knowledge to grow into the shoulder seasons for their family or the food banks!

Save the Date for our 24 Carrot Party!
On September 24, we will be hosting a volunteer appreciation party. We wouldn't be FBG without each one of you, so we hope you will join us for a night off at RainCoast Farms. Stay tuned for more details!

Garden Manager Needed!
Blessings Garden is a well-established garden on Umatilla Ave in Port Townsend. As one of FBFG's first gardens, it is a beloved project for us. Beginning this fall, we are looking for someone to take over as Garden Manager. As a well-maintained garden, thanks to all the hard work from the Quimper Grange folks this year, it is in a great spot for a new manager to take over. Now is a great time to team up and learn the ropes of the garden before transitioning into leadership in the fall! This would be great for someone with Growing Groceries or Master Gardener experience wanting a supportive place to take the next step.

Keep reading for more community updates, some knowledge for your garden, and a documentary recommendation!

Quimper Community Harvest (aka Gleaners) is preparing for the 2022 harvest season and is welcoming new trees as well as new fruit pickers.

If you have fruit trees, berries, or excess vegetables that you’re willing to donate to local food banks, schools, and other organizations that can use fresh locally grown food, we can help harvest and deliver the fruit so that it doesn’t go to waste. We also make applesauce from less “perfect” fruit at the end of the season that is delivered to local schools.

We always welcome new members to our gleaning team, which meets on Tuesday afternoons and Saturday mornings, beginning in late August. Quimper Community Harvest is a branch of Food Bank Growers, and has served the Quimper Peninsula region since 2008. E-mail us at if you would like us to harvest your fruit or would like to join the team! ptgleaning@gmail.com
You can also learn more about Quimper Community Harvest here: https://www.foodbankgrowers.org/welcome-gleaners

Check out this short video to learn how to harness the nitrogen cycle in your own garden!

August Volunteer Opportunities

Plant Sale Prep

If you are interested in volunteering to help with the plant sale, please contact us through the FBG email. While much of the up-potting and organizing has been done, we will be getting things organized at Birchyville in the days before the sale and can always use extra hands!

Birchyville Food Bank Garden

M, W, F - 10-12
With chickens and ducks at the Birchyville Food Bank Garden there are opportunities to work in the gardens and get to know the animals. You can even earn a dozen eggs when you volunteer!

Documentary to Watch - We Feed People

We Feed People from Oscar-winning director Ron Howard, spotlights renowned chef José Andrés and his nonprofit World Central Kitchen ’s incredible mission and evolution over 12 years, from being a scrappy group of grassroots volunteers to becoming one of the most highly regarded humanitarian aid organizations in the disaster relief sector.

It can be watched on most streaming platforms.

'Tis the Season for Pickles!

I don't know about you, but my first thought when I don't have enough room in my fridge for all my fresh veggies is, "what can I pickle?"

From long lasting options to quick pickles, there is something for everyone.

This article has some information and resources for where to start if you are new to the world of fermentation!

Also check out the quick pickled radishes for an easy way to store those delicious crunchy veggies!

Spicy Quick Pickled Radishes

1 bunch radishes
¾ cup white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar
¾ cup water
3 tablespoons honey or maple syrup
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
½ teaspoon whole mustard seeds

Slice off the tops and bottoms of the radishes and slice the radishes into very thin rounds. Pack the rounds into a pint-sized canning jar. Top the rounds with red pepper flakes and mustard seeds.
To prepare the brine: In a small saucepan, combine the vinegar, water, honey or maple syrup and salt. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally, then pour the mixture over the radishes.
Let the mixture cool to room temperature. You can serve the pickles immediately or cover and refrigerate for later consumption. The pickles will keep well in the refrigerator for several weeks.

Boat School Food Bank Garden

foodbankgrowers@gmail.com (Mary Hunt) — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 18:13:43 GMT

Now vs. Then

The Boat School Food Bank Garden is one of the great successes of how this community can come together to create something beautiful!

Just over a year ago, the Food Bank Growers and the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding worked together to build a new garden from the ground up. More often than not, FBG works with gardens that already exist in some capacity. But we were proud to work with the full support of the Boat School to convert this old gravel pit into an abundant home for new garden beds and a world of possibilities.

Thanks to the vision of Executive Director, Betsy Davis , funding was approved to buy and build a new fence and 10 new garden beds. The overall mission for this garden is not just to grow for the food banks, but to help fight food insecurity within the Boat School Community. Four of these beds are dedicated food bank beds, while the others belong to members of the school community. This model is one that not all of our gardens use, but one that works well for the boat school students who often cannot get to the food bank due to their class schedule. Food insecurity exists all around us and anyway we can help alleviate it from our community is a solution we want to be a part of.

Oh, the difference a year, and some TLC, makes!

This garden, though small, is a great place for garden learners, and lovers, to start. Out first garden manager, Amber D., did a great job helping with initial planning, organizing, and making the garden what it is today. In the transition period between managers, Betsy let us know she didn't want to lose the connection with FBG and worked hard to make sure we found the right person to take over. Betsy's unwavering support today means that out new garden managers, Noreen A. and Lisa P., can hone their gardening skills at this beautiful garden site, grow for the food bank, and help support the joint mission of getting students involved and feeding them along the way.

Today, this garden is growing kohlrabi, kale, lettuces, zucchini, and more for a food bank near you! There is also a number of fruit trees from Heartwood Nursery.

Stop by and check it out!

Meet Birch Shapiro, FBG Board Member

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Tue, 26 Jul 2022 04:16:26 GMT

Urban garden developer and duck rangler

Birch Shapiro is the Garden Manager for BirchyVille Garden Coop . He studied Horticulture at Evergreen State College and is interest in adapting food styles to the changing veg varieties for our local gardens in the maritime climate.

Birch has created an Urban Farm to adapt plant varieties, using ecological techniques and low labor. The farm is like a plant library.

Birch believes that Food Security is something for which we need to plan.

Coming Soon - Farm Tour 2022

foodbankgrowers@gmail.com (Mary Hunt) — Thu, 21 Jul 2022 16:45:21 GMT

This year Swan Farm Food Bank Garden will be featured on Farm Tour

Farm Tour is a much-loved Jefferson County tradition and this year is the 20th Annual. The Tour celebrates locally grown food, fiber, and farm-made products , i nvites community members to learn from and engage with their local farmers , and s timulates economic opportunity for farms in Jefferson County. The Farm Tour is a self-guided tour around 15 different Jefferson County Farms.

While the Food Bank Growers do not grow for monetary gain, we recognize that small farms are the heartbeat of our community food systems. We love supporting them in any way we can.

In the past we have had the Quimper Grange and Red Hen at RainCoast featured. This year, our food bank garden at Swan Farm P-Patch will be showcased. A P-Patch is a model of community gardening where smaller parcels can be rented by members of the surrounding neighborhoods. As pictured above, people use their patches for veggies, herbs, and flowers.

The owner of the land at Swan Farm, John Gunning, is community focused by not only hosting the P-Patch Garden, but also the Food Bank Growers, the WSU Seed Library and the Jefferson County Master Gardeners. The food bank garden plot is a very productive parcel. Managed by Karen Swan and her dedicated group of volunteers, they are out there every Tuesday harvesting, watering, weeding, and feeding folks via the Tri-Area Food Bank. Already this year they have donated over 650# to the food bank.

This space is a very special part of the community-at-large and we are excited to invite you in this September! Located right off of Highway 20 next to the Olympic Trading Post, there is plenty of parking, so make sure you say hello!

Farm Tour Schedule:

Friday, September 16
- Outdoor Movie | Time & Location TBD

Saturday, September 17
- Self-guided tours | 10am - 4pm
- Workshops & Special Events | TBD

Sunday, September 18
- Self-guided tours | 10am - 4pm
- Workshops & Special Events | TBD

Learn more at GetOnTheFarm.org !

Meet Lys Burden

foodbankgrowers@gmail.com (Mary Hunt) — Fri, 15 Jul 2022 19:56:34 GMT

Founding Mother, Master Gardener, Food Advocate

If you met Lys today, she would be smiling sweet under her sun hat and telling you about her latest garden project as a WSU Master Gardener. However, Lys has been growing since long before her Master Gardener training. From Ohio and Florida, to Montana and Washington, Lys has dedicated her life to growing organic vegetables, saving seeds, and storing crops for winter through canning, freezing, and drying. While participating in Local 2020 's Food Resiliency Action Group in 2011, Lys helped start the first Food Bank Gardening project at Mountain View. As a local food advocate, Lys jumpstarted the second food bank garden at Port Townsend High School, which sat unused during its most productive months – Summer! By 2013, the group was incorporated as the Food Bank Farm and Gardens (DBA Food Bank Growers). Lys played an integral role in developing the leadership team, initiating the first FBFG bank account, and creating community in the gardens while giving back to the food banks!

Lys then went on to develop Growing Groceries as a collaborative project WSU Extension and FBFG in 2014. In 2015, Lys coordinated the first Growing Groceries class held at WSU Jefferson County Extension Office for 15 participants. Growing Groceries has been an enormously beneficial part of helping our community learn to garden and so many of them have dedicated their time to our gardens. This was all in part to Lys’ ability for advocacy, outreach, and community building. All of this has led to the Food Bank Growers gaining garden sites, volunteers, and a great sense of community over the last decade.

Additionally, she worked with the Native Connections Action Group of the Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship to develop a trail chronicling the life and impact of the renowned figure, Chief Chetzemoka. What is today known as the čičməhán Trail (pronounced Cheech-ma-han, known in English as Chetzemoka) was started as a project to honor the last hereditary chief of the S’Klallam people and bring to life the indigenous history of the area that thrived for hundreds of years before becoming known as Port Townsend. Lys’ hard work in acquiring funding, receiving approval from the state, county, city, and private landowners, and ultimately planning the route that has become a beautiful trail that can be accessed by those on foot, bike, or in cars. The project reached completion in 2020.

Lys is not just an inspiration here in Port Townsend, but also in the cycling world. She and her husband, Dan, along with a couple friends aimed to be the first people to bicycle from Alaska to Argentina. They coined this the Hemistour and even published an article in National Geographic. The group also led the Bikecentennial – a ride across America in the Summer of 1976, America’s bicentennial. Today, Lys and Dan host travelers coming into town on foot or by bike at their home in Port Townsend.

Since FBFG morphed into the Food Bank Growers, the organization has increased from one garden to 12, and a handful of volunteers to a community supported project. Lys’s passion for growing food and transferring knowledge is deeply woven into the mission, vision, and volunteers that thrive today.

Thank you, Lys for pioneering this much needed community safety net, both in the gardens and at the food banks!

Submitted by Sophie DeGroot

Flowers to Feed the Soul

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Mon, 11 Jul 2022 00:49:55 GMT

Tri-area Food Bank Gets/Gives Flowers

This spring Alice's Garden had a plethora or deep purple irises thanks to all that spring rain. Tri-Area Food Bank volunteers Linda, Lynn, and Carole had never seen irises in that shade of purple and everyone loved them.

We often forget how much joy a simple bouquet of color can bring. Do you have an abundance of flowers in your garden? Consider donating them to the food banks.

Taking a Stand

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Sun, 10 Jul 2022 15:20:38 GMT

Food Bank Growers at the Farmers Market

Our Garden Coordinator, Sophie DeGroot has been at the last three Farmers Markets introducing the Food Bank Growers to the community. By using a combination of "free plants and seeds" along with Barbara's great picture poster, market attendees stopped long enough to hear about our accomplishments, pick up some freebies and an introductory postcard on where to learn more.

Most people had no idea there were so many gardens and many donated to the cause. Sophie was joined by Kathy Ryan over the three sessions to answer questions and encourage people to get involved.

Soil FIXer

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Sun, 10 Jul 2022 14:12:42 GMT

Take 5 minutes and "fix" your soil

You hear it over and over -- plant cover crops, but why? What service do they perform and do you have to wait until winter?

This five minute video explains the cycle better than anything I've read. It also inspires me to interplant bush beans with all my crops NOW whether we get one bean off of them or not, we will get bacteria! Grab a cup of coffee, watch, and then go plant a fixer.

Back Story:

Last year we expanded our beds at Red Hen Garden. The year before we had used soil that had a LOT of manure and it turned out to be too heavy and wet, so last year we used Secret Garden's 4-way soil (vs. their 4-way plus with manure), that was 13 yards of a wrong decision. Nothing seemed to be taking off in that beautifully loamy soil EXCEPT the peas and beans. All the other plants are languishing. This video explains why. It isn't the lack of vitamins, it was the lack of bacteria. Worse (for us) we added lots of amendments based on the soil samples and they could be hurting the critters that we need.

There's still time.

While it's early July and we can still start beans, we're going to interplant bush beans throughout the beds with the new soil. This winter we'll plant Austrian Peas just like Ruth did at the Coop Garden. Can't hurt. Could help. AND... we'll have more food for the food bank in beans and pea shoots. We'll see what happens and report back.

Submitted by Mary Hunt

Newsletter July 2022

foodbankgrowers@gmail.com (Mary Hunt) — Thu, 07 Jul 2022 18:19:38 GMT

Fennel salads, how to grow your carrots in pots, and a new fundraiser on the horizon...

Good Morning, Growers!

Well it seems like Summer is still trying to catch us out on the Peninsula this year, but we couldn't be more ready for when it does! We loved seeing so many faces at the Farmers Market over the last few weeks. If you found us there, thanks for stopping by.

As we continue to grow, we are looking for volunteer help in nearly every garden. We are continually planting, harvesting, weeding, and watering. As we even begin to prep for the winter growing season, we need your help! We have gardens that meet nearly every day of the week, so if you have been thinking of getting your hands dirty for a good cause - now is the time! We are also looking for a couple Garden Managers for the next growing season. Whether you are ready to dive in or not, the rest of the Summer would be an excellent time to begin volunteering and learn the ropes before deciding if it is the right role for you!

Plans for our Grow-A-Row fundraiser on Aug 20th are firming up! If you have anything you can start or divide for the sale, contact Barbara at barbaratusting97@gmail.com . Winter vegetable crops (kale, onions, sprouting broccoli, winter cabbages, etc) are being spotlighted with this sale, but ornamental and house plants are also welcome. We want to use this as an educational opportunity for our community to consider 'growing a row' for our food banks this winter, avoiding the deficit of food bank produce we saw last season. Location will be Birchyville Food Bank Garden, time tba.

I hope you are checking out the website, as it is a fabulous place for sharing stories, ideas, plans, recipes, and news! If you ever have a blog post you would like to contribute, please contact foodbankgrowers@gmail.com

- Sophie

NEEDED IN ALL GARDENS:

Working garden tools of any type are needed for several of our eleven working gardens. We are most in need of:

Pruners/clippers
Hand tools
Digging forks
Garden gloves - medium & large
Gift certificates to local garden centers (soil amendments, seeds, supplies, equipment)

We can pick up. Please contact Barbara at barbaratusting97@gmail.com . Thank you for all of your support!!

July Volunteer Opportunities:

Birchyville - Earn Your Eggs!

Brian's Garden:

Friday - July 22 & 29 - 9-11AM
Grapevine pruning as well as weeding and mulching the garden perimeter.

Join the Jefferson County Seed Library for Seed Packing Parties!
Help pack seeds into packets for Seed Library Patrons. It will be a fun experience and good way to network with other seed savers.

Jefferson County Library, Port Hadlock - Humphry Room
Dates: July 18 & August 15
Time: 1:30-2:30pm

No need to RSVP. If you have any questions, please contact madomost@gmail.com

Fennel Summer Salad

Fennel isn't for everyone, but as a simple side, this is my go-to summer dish. It pairs well with a honey mustard salmon, harissa chicken, or BBQ kabobs.

2 fennel bulbs
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp lemon zest
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tbsp fresh mint, roughly chopped
1/2 cup parmesan (optional)
Sesame seeds or Gomasio to taste

In a small bowl mix together olive oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Set aside.
Shave or chop fennel until almost translucent. Toss fennel along with fresh mint, parmesan cheese and prepared lemon salad dressing.

July Gardening Tips

Harvest those garlic scapes! You want to get to them while they are still curly. Instead of cutting them, try pulling them up from the stalk. This will give you more of the tender bit.
Keep seeding your carrots. July 1 is also known as "Carrot Day." If you just don't have any space for more seeds, try directly seeding them into large pots. This video will speak to a few options, but pots of all sizes work to protect your orange veggies from pests and rusts.

Visibility is Everything

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Tue, 05 Jul 2022 18:37:15 GMT

Don't drive by, stop and check out the garden.

Swan Farms has a beautiful new sign thanks to the talented Mary Henson , a food bank garden volunteer and Pea Patch gardener. Before the freshly painted sign was installed, it was easy to drive by the intersection of Highways 116 and 19 in Port Hadlock without realizing there is an extensive food bank garden and pea patch behind the Olympic Trading Post parking lot.

Mary used scrap lumber to create the new sign, which features contact information for gardeners interested in obtaining a garden plot or volunteering at the food bank garden, and a list of Swan's supporters.

Mary poses with her new sign and a recent June harvest.

Contributed by Suzanne Eggleston

Tracking the Sun

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Sat, 02 Jul 2022 18:42:21 GMT

This qualifies as a Hot Tip...

Do you need to get a better understanding of where the sun it in relation to your garden? What's the difference between the summer and winter availability? Now that we are trying to grow more during the winter months, that's a question many of us will be asking.

Noreen Andrews found the answer in SunCalc.org . Noreen gathers our harvest production numbers for us and also recently joined the Boat School garden. A s a new garden (last year) the Boat School group is still getting their heads around how to turn their beds in to production machines. Luckily, they have LOTS of sun in that location, but other gardens may need to plan ahead more.

The photo is a screenshot of her location. Try it out and tuck this tip away for the next time you're doing a site analysis.

SNAP-Ed Survey

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Tue, 28 Jun 2022 20:49:50 GMT

Clallam-Jefferson Extension and regional Farmers Markets are conducting a survey for SNAP shoppers to share their feedback about regional farmers markets. Even if you ha ve NOT shopped at the farmers market, we want to hear from you! Take this short survey on your device and receive a voucher via email to spend at the local farmers market of your choice.

To take the survey, scan the QR code with your device or navigate to this link: https://tinyurl.com/49pjwt5w

Your responses will directly help Clallam and Jefferson County Farmers Markets and SNAP-Ed improve the food access experience for SNAP shoppers.

Hoop House Donation!

barbaratusting97@gmail.com (Barbara Tusting ) — Mon, 27 Jun 2022 16:17:20 GMT

Donations Feed Many

Rita Kepner and John Matthiessen pose in Hoop House #1 at Quimper Grange Food Bank Garden. They were no longer able to use the structure, and wanted it to be useful elsewhere. Through many connections, it landed at the Grange Garden. Shold Landscaping donated gravel for the floor. Many hours of labor from great volunteers went into the foundation, with extra thanks to Jo Yount, Mark & Mary Paxton, Lys Burden, Herb Tracy and others.

Last year, another donor gave a generous gift, running electricity to the hoop house, enabling it to become a greenhouse with heat mats, lighting, and fans. This year they gave a new irrigation system to the garden. With gifts like these, many vegetable starts will feed many more people.

Water, Water, Everywhere

barbaratusting97@gmail.com (Barbara Tusting ) — Thu, 23 Jun 2022 01:55:30 GMT

Jean Ball and Willie (left), installing irrigation line at Quimper Grange garden; Bill & Mary Beth (right) digging one of eight new trenches at the Grange Garden

Five new water hydrants and irrigation lines were recently installed by donor Jean Ball (and her buddy Willie). Jean has tended to the irrigation system at the Quimper Grange garden for many years, taking a break from her profession as a landscape designer to design for the garden. Trenches to the hydrants were dug by seven volunteers over a week, and recently filled in to all of our relief!

The hydrants will make access to watering much easier - no more dragging hundreds of feet of hose around, and will reduce tripping hazards. Thank you to all volunteers, and especially to Jean.

Bean Pole Vaulting

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Tue, 21 Jun 2022 20:18:17 GMT

Go High or Go Home.

Swan Farm s food bank garden manager Karen Seabrook built a teepee on a late spring day. Karen and crew member Suzanne Eggleston used bamboo canes donated years before by a Swan Farms Pea Patch gardener to create the structure on which the beans could climb. The two used recycled rope from spent straw bales to secure the top, and later used it to create rungs up the body of the teepee.

Before starting the project, neither had any idea how to build a teepee. As it turns out, YouTube is a great teacher!

Greenhouses to the Rescue

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 01:10:50 GMT

Where Climate doesn't Change

The past few months have been cold and VERY wet. Almost everyone is having issues with soggy soil that can't warm up enough to keep roots happy. Brassicas such as lettuce, kale, and cabbage can almost handle it, but not tomatoes and peppers as they need heat and consistent conditions to thrive.

The tomatoes (left) were started from seed in early March, transplanted to

4 inch pots in April and put into the pots you see in May. By July tomatoes will be ready to pick throughout the month and into August. After years of trial and error by Dick Schneider at Red Hen garde n has devised the perfect conditions for growing a predictable crop of black spot and blight free tomatoes. This year the Red Hen volunteers are following his path to perfection with healthy results.

Last year the 43 pots in this house produced 423 pounds of tomatoes. By keeping records of which varieties produce the largest crops, a small space becomes more and more effective.

As the PNW climate changes, the more we are going to need greenhouses, row covers, and weather proof plants to mitigate wet springs or heat dome summers.

Thinning the Crop

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Thu, 16 Jun 2022 18:22:14 GMT

Orchard Thinning - June 19, 2022 - 9:30 am

(Left) The bag of tiny apples show wasn't picked to feed the deer "apple candy", but to thin out the over abundance of fruit on the Blue Heron Middle School orchard. Each spring, a group of gleaners put their picking skills to use by taking thousands of nickel sized apples off the branches. The apples that are left with six inches between them, grow big and snackable!

One year a honey crisp apple tree was missed (easy to do in a 70 tree orchard). Later that season the tree had tons of apples, but they were half the size of what you would find in the stores. The next year the same tree had low production.

Moral of the story, thin your crop if you want good sized fruit every single year.

Below: Sharon, Doug, Ruth & Seth, Barbara and Dorthy while thinning on

June 19, 2022

The Tall and the Short of It

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Wed, 15 Jun 2022 19:30:24 GMT

Everyone is having a weird year.

This one is right up there with crop circles and UGOs (unexplained growing objects). Belinda Jimenez (LEFT) points to two rows of the same pea seeds, planted at the same time, four feet apart, in the same soil conditions, the same watering and (presumedly) the same sun… and yet, one row is four feet high and the other is 1 foot high. Go figure.

Luckily everything else at Alice's Garden is flourishing, flowering, and strawberrying! (ABOVE) Check out how lush the kale and chard is growing. Belinda said that she row covered the crops from the start and only took off the mesh for that morning's tour.

One of the benefits of working with Food Bank Growers is seeing how other growers make the most of their space. This garden is nestled inside a small front yard with years of well tended soil. Last week, 33.3 pounds of head lettuce was harvested from that section between the pea rows. This week chard replaced it and is ready to grow up strong -- we hope -- under the wireframe anything can happen.

Bunnies Be GONE

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Wed, 08 Jun 2022 18:17:10 GMT

Boat School Garden Veggies are Fenced In

Our Garden Co-ordinator, Sophie DeGro o t along with Barbara Tusti n g and Mary Hunt, took advantage of the rain-soaked soil to trench out and put chicken wire fencing into place at the Boat School garden. While the 4 inch square fencing looks great, it was an open door to rabbits who have been helping themselves to the " Garden Deli."

In case you have a similar project, it took the three of them 1.5 hours to put in 60 feet of fencing and tie it off to the heavy deer fencing with electrical ties. It was easy work, but if the ground hadn't been soaked then the gravel and clay dirt would not have budged even with pick axes. Something to keep in mind for your next trenching project.

So far the 2 inch black, plastic deer fence (seen behind Sophie) seems to be keeping out both deer and bunnies.

PTHS is "Well" on its Way

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Wed, 08 Jun 2022 17:41:34 GMT

Growing Nutritious Food is off to an Early Start

It's the first week in June 2022 and this sunny spot is showing off what years of soil development and weekly love can do to transform what was nasty gravel at the end of a parking lot into a highly productive garden both for education and eating.

Above Kathy Ryan maintains the peas and below Ruth Blyther hand picks out the baby weeds from the baby greens crops. Ruth also oversees the Co-op FBG.

Doug van Allen manages this garden until a new PTHS Garden Coordinator is hired. You'll find Doug helping out at the Blue Heron Middle School orchard as well.

The PTHS garden is unique in that it brings fresh, nutrient dense food to the culinary classes at the high school as well as providing food for the PT Food Bank.

First Fava Bean Harvest

barbaratusting97@gmail.com (Barbara Tusting ) — Wed, 08 Jun 2022 12:51:43 GMT

First Favas From October Planting

Beth Krehbiel shows Quimper Grange Garden's first five pounds of fava bean harvested for the Food Bank. We have been cutting the tender shoots for weeks, also for the Food Bank, and just noticed tons of beans ready to pick.

Fava Beans (or Broad Beans) are interesting in that they have a pod AND a waxy hull around each bean inside the pod. If you catch them small enough, you can eat pod and all - but otherwise they need to be shelled, then lightly steamed - then the inside hull will pop right off.

Favas are full of protein, manganese, folate, and fiber. They have been documented as early as 6000 BCE, and are currently a staple food in the Middle East, southern Europe, and Africa.

Blue Heron Middle School Orchard Clean Up and Thinning

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Sat, 04 Jun 2022 19:20:56 GMT

The once-a-year job ensures a good crop

Fruit orchard enthusiasts, Doug van Allen (left) and Seth Rolland (right) are digging out the deep rooted weeds such as thistle, dock, hemlock... and ripping up grasses / bedstraw which were encroaching on the 70 plus trees in Blue Heron Middle School Orchard . Sonny Flores, Ruth Blyther, and Mary Hunt helped in the process. It's tedious, but much easier than mulching the entire orchard in January like what hasbeen doing for the past 10 years. As the trees have matured, the need for the yearly mulching isn't as needed.

In a couple of weeks, the fruit will be set and ready to be thinned. Due to our cold spring, the fruit set looks light and therefore the time it takes to thin fruit to 4-6 inches apart will be quick.

Thinning is a fun, once-a-year job that's right up there with trimming grape vines for a better harvest. Let us know if you'd like to participate this year.

Newsletter June 2022

foodbankgrowers@gmail.com (Mary Hunt) — Fri, 03 Jun 2022 18:19:08 GMT

Nearly 1,000# already donated, a weeding workshop & more!

Good Morning, Growers!

I hope this email finds you knuckles deep in a weed-free garden with the sunshine at your back. And if not, at least with a warm cup of coffee in your hand as you listen to the rain.

Our growing season is off to a great start with already 953# of veg & 104 dozen eggs donated, as well as over 1,000 volunteer hours worked! This is just the beginning of the season and it is all because of YOU. With the warm weather just beginning and the daylight hours lengthening, we can't wait to see what the gardens get up to this season. We hope you'll continue to join us in finding joy in the dirt!

We've welcomed a new team member to the ranks. Noreen A. will be handling the donation statistics (type & volume) from every garden! This is a hugely important role for us as a non-profit. Keeping track of the amazing work we all do is key to moving froward towards stronger growing seasons in the future. Thanks for joining the team, Noreen!

This newsletter includes a lot of community events and opportunities, so I hope you'll keep reading.

-Sophie

Weekend Weeding Workshop, June 3, 4 and 5, 2022 at Brian’s Food Bank Garden

The volunteer gardeners at Brian’s Food Bank Garden are holding a free Weekend Weeding Workshop to help gardeners discover how to deal with the pernicious, perennial weeds such as thistle, bindweed and quackgrass, without using toxic chemicals. Three workshop sessions from 2-4 pm are available to choose from: Friday, June 3, Saturday, June 4, and Sunday, June 5 . At each 2-hour session, master weeder, Mehdi, will demonstrate techniques for removing these pesky plants that are so difficult to remove from gardens.

All participants will have the opportunity to practice the weeding techniques demonstrated if they bring either a spading fork, drain or trenching shovel for practice. Only a limited number of these tools will be available on site.

Participants should also dress for the weather, wear old clothes and gardening gloves.

Brian’s Food Bank Garden is located at the Glaspell Farm, 1201 Olympic Ave in Port Townsend’s San Juan Valley. Look for the driveway on the south side of the Tremont St and Olympic Ave intersection. Please park in the grass along the fence line; signs will be posted leading to the garden. For questions contact garden manager, Lys Burden, at WPburden@aol.com or 360-301-0982.

Mary H. rocking a veggie bouquet in the Rhody Parade! Did you see us there?!

The Northwest Stone Sculptors Association is hosting a Women's Hand Carving Event with two of our very own volunteers showing work!

Come visit with the artists in action using hand tools to carve stone in the gardens and tour the indoor exhibit of completed stone sculptures between 10-5 pm, Saturday, June 4 at the Old Alcohol Plant in Port Hadlock. For more info and the event poster, read more .

Say hi to Beth K. and Kim D. if you go!

The Port Townsend Master Gardener Secret Garden Tour is finally back!

On June 18 from 10a-4p, join in to view seven diverse gardens. Our 2022 gardens include a novel food garden, a Great Picks sustainable garden, cozy cottage styles, and spacious ornamental landscapes. It will be a good time to stretch your legs and enjoy some beautiful spaces in Port Townsend.
Secret Garden Tour tickets will be available at the Port Townsend Garden Center, Secret Garden Nursery, Shold Landscape Products and Garden Center, Chimacum Corner Farmstand, and online at brownpapertickets.com/event/5446440 . Day-of tickets will be sold at the Port Townsend Library. Cost is $15 for advance tickets and $20 for day-of tickets.
The Secret Garden Tour is a fundraiser that supports the Jefferson County Master Gardener Foundation.

June Volunteer Opportunities:

Birchyville - Earn Your Eggs!

Diana Z, Lindsay M, and Kari B. show off their herb bouquets for the Tri-Area Food Bank. Read more here.

Free Top Soil Available to those that read this far!

Located at Brian's FB Garden in Port Townsend. This soil is rich, valley silt loam. Farm owner, Jeanie Glaspell, wants it removed as soon as possible. It is already heaped in a pile and ready to be loaded.

Call Lys for more information or directions at 360-301-0982.

Spring Bounty Salad

2 cups cooked lentils (Black Caviar or French Green are nice- not not use split lentils) about ¾ cup dry.
3 cups spring veggies- your choice of snap peas, green beans, asparagus, radishes or chard
3 tablespoons red onion- chopped fine
1–2 garlic cloves, finely minced
¼ cup chopped mint leaves
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 lemon, zest and juice
1 teaspoon sumac
salt and pepper to taste

Cook the lentils until tender, but not falling apart. Lightly steam, grill or blanch the veggies. Or add them raw.

Place the lentils, veggies, onion, garlic and mint in a bowl. Toss with the olive oil, lemon zest and juice form ½ a lemon. Season generously with salt, pepper and optional sumac. Adjust lemon, adding more if you like.

Mix all the ingredients together in a small bowl and dive in!

Hot Tips for the Month of June

Have you ever considered eating radish seed pods? Me neither! But, apparently the beautiful flowers turn into a wonderful snack, side dish, or even pickles! Consider overwintering your radishes for this lovely treat.

Read all about it here.

If you are a fan of home grown radicchio, those go in the ground in the next couple weeks for a fall harvest.
Plant your winter squashes now or never!

Free Food in the Spring

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Sun, 29 May 2022 15:39:13 GMT

Plant it once, pick it for years...

Less work. More produce. What's not to love?

That's what happens when you plant, oregano, rosemary, mint, sage, chives, thyme, and rhubarb as seen in these pictures -- a whole lot to love. All were planted years ago by the original garden owner(s) and every year they continue to offer up their bounty. Last week (May 24) at the Red Hen garde n Diana Zinn, Lindsay Mayo, and Kari Brown made bouquets of the herbs to take to the

Tri-Area Food Bank.

Tucked into the "nose gays" were sprigs of Purple Sprouting Broccoli which was still producing over at the Boat School garde n. PBS isn't a perennial its planted in the prior fall, but in the spring it's a good harvest party starter with very sweet stems.

Food Bank recipients can use the herbs in stir fries, soups, salads, pasta dishes, or stews. If you plant your own, instead of paying $2 for a little plastic carton of herbs you can walk out your door and pick fresh for free -- while the price of food goes up, these lovely perennials keep paying it forward in herbs and pies.

Give Peas a Chance

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Tue, 24 May 2022 05:12:09 GMT

Do this the next time you plant peas

Is is possible to have your heart broken by peas? Or more accurately broken by the rodents who eat the peas the moment they popped out of the ground?

Yes.

Especially when you had 40 feet of them planted with little to show for the effort. What to do, what to do... turn to YouTube, of course. We needed a way to recoup our losses, fast, as our pea-planting-window was closing. Hue Richards to the rescue using gutters for seed trays .

First we purchased 3, 10 ft. gutters, sawed them in half to a manageable size, filled with soil and planted every last pea seed from in the FBG seed bank. Full disclosure, we soaked them overnight. Next we kept the planted trays inside the greenhouse for a bit of extra warmth and two weeks later we had 6 inch peas ready to go.

Now the fun part. Make a trench and slide those babies into place. We timed it and it took 12 seconds per 5 ft. Two weeks later they are taking off like peas should this time of year. Apparently rodents don't like big plants, they like the appetizer, but not something bigger than their head.

Do you have some old gutters needing a new life? Give this time saver a try.

Welcome Quimper Community Harvest Gleaners

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Tue, 24 May 2022 04:27:38 GMT

QCH joins FBG to share resources and missions

Landing Picture: Cheryl Lowe picking apples

Left: Tom Pendley harvesting apples.

Above: End of the season cider making party.

Quimper Community Harvest (QCH), also known as PT Gleaners, was recently adopted by the Food Bank Growers as a branch of the non-profit organization. The joyful union benefits both the Gleaners and Growers, sharing resources offered by both groups to provide fresh food to local food banks, schools and other organizations.

Some of the services the groups will share include a regular newsletter and website, record keeping of donations, liability insurance, funding, and grant writing services for projects and equipment. The groups can also collaborate on workshops and special events offered to volunteers and orchard tree owners. One of the new perks will be a more formal orchard ladder training for all Gleaners to ensure that folks are following safe practices that are now covered under group liability insurance. Most importantly, the joint venture enhances the creative network of volunteers who participate in “growing, gathering, and giving,” which is our primary vision.

A new crop of cherries, plums, apples and pears is well on the way. If you have donated to Gleaners in the past, we’ll be writing to you soon to ask if you’d like us to come harvest some of your fruit for the community later this summer and fall.

or donate your tree for gleaning at this Local 2020 web pa ge .

The 2022 Rhody Parade Squad

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Sun, 22 May 2022 00:00:27 GMT

A perfectly blue and 60 degree day for a parade

The gardens are almost fully planted, so that means it's time for FBGrower's first victory lap, right? Mary, Mary Beth, JJ, Kathy, and Jo paraded their stuff in the Rhody Parade to many cheers and "THANK YOU" coming from the crowd. Under full disclosure, many of the thanks were because the Food Bank volunteers were also walking with us, but it's all in the family.

Maybe next year we will rent a wagon and sit and wave... walking down the hill was fun. Walking back UP the hill to our cars was not!

Note to self: next year if it's another hot day, carry water.

Meet Mary Beth Haralovich, FBG Board Secretary

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Sun, 15 May 2022 18:41:23 GMT

A tisket a TASK KIT, Mary Beth's seeds are the beginning of our harvest.

Mary Beth is our favorite seedy friend. We all have our secret obsessions, Mary Beth's is keeping track of 300+ packets of seeds for the FBG Seed Bank. She first became attached to this underground seedy world via Barbara Tustin gwho she joinedto load up every single variety onto the FBG Google Docs. Mary Beth offered to maintain the list and then -- well -- you can never have enough seeds. She keeps tubs of them at her Seed Bank and FBG Archiv e in a no-longer-spare-room of her house.

Oh sure, she's a fabulous secretary and each month can translate zoom meeting madness into a legible document to keep projects moving ahead, but that's just a front... Mary Beth's real vocation is volunteering at Quimper Grange Food Bank Garden. She loves being in the garden and with the crew. She gives gratitude (or blame) to taking not one, but three, Growing Groceries classes. Look for her at the Quimper Garden, she's the one under the blue hat.

Where does she get her sense of organization? Maybe from one of the 9 states she's lived in -- IN, WI, IA, VT, AZ, TX, CA, AK, and WA. Each state bears its unwritten rules for getting along with others. Perhaps she looks at her seeds the same way, work together or work apart, just get. to. work!

On the top of her favorite list -- scallions. "They are fast, easy, pretty, and tasty," she says.

Thanks for your invaluable skill set, Mary Beth, and being our organization's communication maven -- both are seeds for growth.

Feeding Souls

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Sat, 14 May 2022 15:59:42 GMT

Barbara Tusting Gives Us a Tour of Quimper Grange Garden and Greenhouses

Click here for a Video Tour of the garden.

Our thanks to Zak Murphy for this delightful video.

Worm Bins Made Easy by Herb Tracy

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Tue, 10 May 2022 20:04:42 GMT

Red Wigglers are Your Friends

Recently at the Spring Plant Sale, Herb Tracy gave a demo on how to create a simple worm bed to not only "eat your garbage" but to create castings (worm poop) to use as fertilizer in your soil. He's an advocate of the book, "Worms Eat My Garbage " which details everything you need to know including the "cubic" footage of space required when building your bin.

Herb is seen here showing the difference between small/Red Wigglers and "fishing" worms. The Red Wigglers are full size and not baby worms. He brought with him a demo-bin with holes in the lid to let fresh air in and holes in the bottom to let excess water out. To get started he suggests using finely shredded newspaper that's been soaked and wrung out and mixed with soil, garbage and of course Red Wigglers. Red Wigglers are voracious eaters and reproduce with abandon. To get your own, make friends with someone who already has a bin and grab a handful, or you can buy them online and have them shipped to you.

A good working worm bin doesn't smell and can take care of food waste when you don't have room for a compost bin. It keeps food waste out of our trash system while also making great (and FREE) fertilizer for house plants or outdoor gardens.

Thanks Herb, every family needs a worm bed for the kids to keep feeding and being grossed out over red wigglers. At the same time it provides a living science project of how to keep a system in balance with the proper amount of air, water, food, and population. Soon they'll be the ones giving out worms so that their friends can start their own family garbage eating machine.

Meet Emmy Lou Stein, FBG Treasurer

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Sun, 08 May 2022 14:38:31 GMT

Home Gardener for Over 40 Years

Emmy Lou didn't start out in the glitzy world of high finance and Quick Books, she was a nurse for most of her life and learned how to manage organizational money when their neighborhood community garden formed. She and her husband Phil Andr us share 42 acres south of Chimacum which they co-own with five other households (10 people) called "Trillium A Land Trust". Emmy Lou is the treasurer and also the treasurer for another neighborhood group, the Four Creeks Community Association.

Anyone can learn QuickBooks, but Emmy Lou knows what it takes to keep communal operations humming along and that's invaluable to the Food Bank Growers. She brings a reality check to every decision. In a way she's doing what she's always done, but instead of keeping patients healthy, she's keeping our finances healthy.

In the photo above, Emmy Lou is seen in front of their cherished Gravenstein apple tree. They also have pears, grapes, rhubarb, raspberries, strawberries as well as a huge plot of garlic and raised beds waiting for this year's plants as soon as it warms up. She revealed that they received the raspberries from a friend over 40 years ago and that person may have had the plants for 20 years earlier. Like a botanical relative, raspberries never go away, just transfer locations. Lucky them -- even on a gray day the acreage is a sublime place to call home.

(left) When we saw that Territorial Seed Company offered "Emmy Lou" tomato e s -- well -- we had to make sure some of them made their way to her homestead. Below are her results as of Oct. 15. Just. So. Perfect . And dense! No air pockets in these babies, they are all solid tomato. Looks like it's Emmy Lous for the win.

We're Hiring!

foodbankgrowers@gmail.com (Mary Hunt) — Fri, 06 May 2022 22:06:11 GMT

Join Us As An AmeriCorps Summer Associate!

Our program is looking to build capacity for storing fresh produce throughout the Winter season by continuing to build partnerships with other local organizations, facilities, and agriculture. This AmeriCorps opportunity is a project of Harvest Against Hunger, which connects local growers, food banks and volunteers to secure fresh produce for distribution to thousands of people throughout Washington State. The Harvest VISTA program finds innovative ways to decrease waste of fresh fruits and vegetables and increase the availability of nutritious produce for food bank clients. The AmeriCorps Summer Associate (SA) program will serve an intensive level of summer service for 10 weeks (June 21-August 29).

The AmeriCorps Summer Associate will be working with Food Bank Growers to coordinate metrics on what crops are needed and when, helping our garden networks plan for future planting and harvesting, as well as what storage is needed for Summer surplus. This data collection will benefit Farm to Food Pantry and Jefferson County Food Banks as well by helping define Jefferson County’s need for Winter food security. A primary focus will be to reduce food waste and increase this network’s ability to fill the gaps in the growing season. The AmeriCorps Member will be working predominantly in support of health and hunger. Their role will help with building community development that can continue to be built on for years to come.

Please visit this link for the full listing and to apply! If you have questions, please contact foodbankgrowers@gmail.com.

The application deadline is May 31st.

Newsletter May 2022

foodbankgrowers@gmail.com (Mary Hunt) — Fri, 06 May 2022 15:26:21 GMT

Plant Sale Recap, Seeking Two Volunteer Positions, And Hiring an AmeriCorps Summer Associate!

Thank you to everyone who supported our Second Annual Plant sale this past weekend. Your support is what keeps us going, literally. While our work aims to put food in the food banks, we love having the community get to see the gardens where that happens. From plant starts and worm bins, one of our biggest sellers this year was the two-hour weeding extravaganza with Kathy and Barbara :) And our Seeds for Ukraine raised over $100 for the World Center Kitchen . Check out some pictures below.

The plant sale was such a success thanks to our fabulous fundraising team. Barbara Tusting and Mark Paxton led the team that grew the starts, managed the sales, and organized this fabulous fundraiser. This is no easy feat to pull off with such grace. Big thanks to them and the rest of the team: Kim Danner, Mary Paxton, Mary Beth Haralovich, Mary Hunt, Lys Burden, Birch Shapiro, Beth Krehbiel, Kathy Ryan, and countless others who teamed up!

Please keep reading to learn about two volunteer positions we are looking to fill, as well as an AmeriCorps Internship we are hiring for.

Lastly, if you haven't yet seen our new website, artfully crafted by Mary Hunt, please check it out at foodbankgrowers.org

-Sophie

We have two volunteer positions that we are looking to fill:

1. A Garden Manager for the Boat School Food Bank Garden in Hadlock. This garden is a hybrid garden, sharing beds with the Boat School students. With only 4 raised beds dedicated to the Food Bank, this garden is a very manageable for someone looking to dip their feet into what it's like to be a garden manager.

2. Someone who can help with Data Entry. This important role helps with data collection for the gardens and the food banks. It only requires a few hours per month. This job can be done remotely and is best suited for someone who enjoys numbers and helping use data as a force for good.

Our sweet Amber DeLong, who handled both of these roles with grace, will be stepping back from Food Bank Growers thanks to a great job opportunity. Though we are sad to for her to leave, we are very excited for her next steps, and the opportunity to find the right persons to fill her shoes!

May Volunteer Opportunities:

Birchyville - Earn Your Eggs!

We're hiring! An AmeriCorps VISTA Intern!

This position will be 40 hrs / week for 10 weeks. The person who fills it will play a crucial role in helping bridge the gap between the food banks and the gardens - helping us understand more about surplus produce and how we an employ preservation techniques to help store it for winter food bank needs. If you know of anyone who may be interested, please get in touch. The listing can be found here. Please share to your networks as the timeline fo finding this person is moving quickly!

We are also in need of housing for this person. If you have an ADU or a spare room that you would be willing to rent out for a fair price, please contact Kathy Ryan at kathyrn76@mac.com

Notes from our Discussion Meeting:

This month, Francesco Tortorici of Olympic Biochar hosted a fantastic discussion about the benefits of using biochar. Biochar assists nature in the regeneration of nutrient rich soil by enhancing a healthy soil biome encouraging microbes, bacteria, and mycelia, while also sequestering carbon from the atmosphere. These benefits can be used by garden and farms of all sizes! If you'd like to learn more, check out this video. Thank you so much, Francesco, for sharing you enthusiasm and knowledge with us!

Morel Mushroom and Quinoa Salad:

Ingredients:

0.5 ounces dried morel mushrooms
2 cups boiling water
3/4 cups golden quinoa rinsed
1/4 cups pine nuts
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil divided
1/4 cup sliced shallots
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
4 cups baby arugula
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 ounce goat cheese or soft vegan cheese crumbled
fine sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

How To:

If using dried morels. rehydrate them for 20-30 min. Slice in half or quarters.
Cook your quinoa. If you rehydrated the morels. save the mushroom water and cook the quinoa in it.
Toast pine nuts until golden brown. Set aside and allow to cool.
Use 2 tablespoons of olive oil to cook the shallot, add the sliced morels to skillet and sauté until they are fragrant and slightly browned.
Add the garlic, thyme and sea salt to the skillet and cook until the garlic is fragrant.
Add the arugula to the skillet and cook until it is just wilted, then remove the skillet from heat.
Combine the quinoa and mushroom mixture together in a large bowl. Add the remaining tablespoon of olive oil, lemon juice, black pepper, and toss. Top with the toasted pine nuts and crumbled cheese.

It's Tomato Time

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Wed, 04 May 2022 17:34:01 GMT

Step-by-Step to Perfection

Today (May 4th) at Red Hen FBG , it's time to move the tomato starts to their summer house going from 4 inch pots to 25 gallon mansions of soil.

Last year we captured all the steps that Dick Scheider (left) employs to ensure a predictable crop with no black spot or bugs. Click HERE to see the slide show.

From the 42 pots we ended up with over 400 pounds/6000+ tomatoes. (Yes, we weighed and counted every one.) They produced well from July through mid-August. Come visit any Thursday morning from 10-11 at Red Hen Garden and check out their progress or ask questions.

Meet Barbara Tusting, FBG Board Member 2021-22

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Sun, 01 May 2022 15:46:25 GMT

... the definition of "Cool as a Cucumber"

Barbara may disagree, but those of us who work beside her are amazed at her ability to organize on Google Docs, on paper, or in person… then get into the dirt for hours without troweling someone. She's taught all who comes in contact with her that it's ok to pull back a bit until, "the force is with you again". It's a good lesson in "volunteer/life" balance.

As a former office manager, Barbara is well versed in the value of multi-tasking as she co-managers Quimper Grange Garden* with founder Jo Yount and seedling growing specialist, Kim Danner. Barbara excels in making plans and hitting deadlines. Most people in volunteer mode don't want to see either of them again yet when applied to large gardens and projects, planning makes work easier for all involved and form a template to follow the next year.

Barbara is a Growing Groceries graduate who wants to take the course over and over. Her influence is felt on everything she co-manages with other FBG volunteers:

Quimper Grange Garden co-management
Blessings Garden (start up) management
Spring/Fall Plant Sale management
Kickstarted the FoodBankGrowers.org website
Growing out seedlings for the plant sale and for other FB Gardens.
Saving pots for recycling
Creating collateral handouts
Giving input at board meetings
Advising the Finance committee
We'll stop there, but she doesn't…

Having lived in California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Washington, and on board sailing between Maine and Dominica, W.I. for a year… Barbara can go with the flow. She also has 30+ years in ornamental plantings and over 6 years with vegetables and fruit growing. She says she loves pole beans because,

"It's like a treasure hunt and almost everyone likes me to share with them."

If you'd like to meet Barbara, volunteer with any of the above projects --

To work with her is the best way to experience her energy, knowledge, and

cool self.

*The Quimper Grange Garden has become the defacto ground zero for the Food Bank Growers organization -- many gardening programs and success stories originated there over the past 12 years.

Meet Mark Paxton, FBG Board President 2023-24

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Mon, 25 Apr 2022 03:04:15 GMT

Guerrilla Gardener at large…

This is what happens when you mix a Liberal Studies degree with Communications -- creative thinking leads every task. In Mark's case he taught an entertaining English class, wrote for newspapers, and eventually became an editor. When the print media took a downturn, he added grant writing and

project management to his talents which are exactly what the Food Bank Growers needed. Mark had been a board member, then stepped into the VP role and finally as served as FBG President.

Mark is very hands-on when he gets involved with an organization. Before he became joined the Food Bank Growers, his last career stop was that as Development Director at the Community Food Bank of San Benito, CA. While our Food Banks serve an average of 2000 households a month, the Community Food Bank served over 5000. Because the San Benito area was part of the California's "Salad Bowl", thousands of pounds of veggies came to them without asking. It was a great partnership of over-abundance meeting need. Here in Jefferson County we aren't that lucky, so we grow our own abundance.

Today you'll find him working at the Jefferson County Library, applying that hori-hori knife to the weeds at the Quimper Grange Garden or helping on the FBG Plant Sale along with Barbara Tusting and Mary Paxton.

Mark believes that you should always be working yourself out of a job --

"The better you do, the greater the pockets of need manifest and bring others to the solution."

Thanks for your efforts, Mark, FBG is better because of you and the weeds are not!

Meet Kathy Ryan, FBG Board President 2017-2022

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Fri, 15 Apr 2022 23:58:34 GMT

Growing Food is Tempting...

Every organization needs a matchmaker -- someone who puts the right people with the right project or with others who inspire them to keep going. For the Food Bank Growers, that person is FBG Board President, "Glue-ru", and lifetime advocate for helping others, Kathy Ryan.

Kathy started out in New York as an elementary school teacher which morphed into becoming a librarian in Rhode Island after education cutbacks. After a medical retirement from library work, she became interested in local small farms through work/trade, prepping farm stand produce displays, vineyard maintenance, intense growing on a one acre farm, and even being an Alpaca manure coordinator (ask her for details…)

After her husband Herb Tracy (also an educator) retired, they came to Port Townsend to be closer to the grandkids and immediately began donating their time first to the Grange Garden , then the Port Townsend Food Bank , the Jefferson Land Trus t, and to the PT Food Bank Farms and Gardens (now called FoodBankGrowers.org).

Kathy believes in learning-by-doing. You'll find her cleaning out the strawberry beds at Port Townsend High School garden , handing out food at the Port Townsend Food Bank, chopping veggies for the Just Soup Kitchen , working with the Gleaner's apple sauce project , or attending countless meetings in-person or on-zoom.

She's the moxie behind the movements that sometimes take years to happen and need a consistent voice to keep pushing them into existence -- the food freeze-dryer projec t is just now gaining steam (or frost) after 3 years of incubation driven by putting up summer surplus for winter use. Talk to her for 15 minutes and you'll hear about the Growing Groceries program, or the WSU Seed Library (that began at the Food Bank Gardens) , Senior Home Delivery , or how programs on the west end of Jefferson County are doing things.

It's a lot for one person to be both historian and futurist of an organization, so now she's on a mission to transfer some of that institutional knowledge onto this website ensuring a past, present, and future for local Food Bank Growers.

Thank you Kathy for your years of stewardship, friendship, and doing the networking necessary to strengthen our local food safety net.

Winter Harvest for Food Bank!

barbaratusting97@gmail.com (Barbara Tusting ) — Wed, 13 Apr 2022 14:40:52 GMT

What you can grow in a hoop house!

Beth Kreihbel, Ken Anderson, and Mary Paxton (seated) hold samples of produce grown at the Quimper Grange Food Bank Garden through the winter. Beth is holding celery, stir-fry bundles and our first rhubarb harvest; Ken a huge basket of fresh spinach, and Mary has mustard, fava bean greens and an herb bundle. Our focus this year will be improving winter harvest by utilizing all three of our hoop houses for items such as turnips, onions & mustard greens, and planting more winter-hardy outdoor produce.

Newsletter April 2022

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Thu, 07 Apr 2022 14:44:07 GMT

Grow. Gather. Give.

I hope the first thing you noticed was our new name - Food Bank Growers. We are proud to announce this change as we feel it reflects our organization on a broader level. Growing produce for the food banks has always been a priority and a pleasure, but our organization has grown to support the growing, gathering, and giving of so much more than just food. I hope that when you read our motto, "Grow. Gather. Give." you are inspired by a sense of community, an expanse of knowledge, and a desire to share in it with us. Along with a name change, we have many exciting expansions and we hope you'll join us.

Firstly, we are expanding to include 14 garden sites around the county, as well as the beloved Quimper Community Harvest. As we join forces with the Gleaners and other experienced gardeners, we are looking forward to sharing networks and knowledge that can enhance our two organizations. As climate change and supply chain disruptions continue to impede our local food bank's access to U.S. grown produce, we are happy to include more gardens around the county. Winter months can be very hard for the food banks, with limited access to fresh produce. We hope to have access to more winter growing space by expanding our winter planting plans and increasing hoop house square footage for next year. Being able to grow all year-round is becoming one of the most vital goals of our organization.

Secondly, we have launched a new website! Please check it out at foodbankgrowers.org . This new website will prioritize the gardens and the people behind them. It will be a great resource for sharing knowledge and experiences, as well as connecting the gardens with one another. Big thanks to Frank DePalma of Totera Web Services , Mary Hunt, and Barbara Tusting for all their hard work getting it up and running. If you want to read more, please check out this article on the why and how we are using the new website commit to our mission.... Grow. Gather, Give.

The last thing I want to remind everyone of is our annual Plant Sale Fundraiser . We have been working hard to nurture hundreds of plant starts that we hope will make it to their new homes with you! Beginning on April 18, sales will go live on our new website. You can purchase plants until April 25th. Plant pick-up will be on April 30th at the Quimper Grange. Everything from veggies and herbs to flowers and worm bins will be available.

Transitions

You'll still see our old name in use as we make the transition. It's still the same organization, just with a mission informed by and for the entire Jefferson County Community. Pictured in the The Blessings Garden at the First Church Christ-Scientist, a garden that has joined the fleet once again.

April Volunteer Opportunities

Plant Sale

Volunteer for our Annual Fundraiser! We especially need help the week leading up to sale as we pull together orders, double check for accuracy, and keep everything watered. We could also use some help the day of - April 30 - to help with order pick-up at the Quimper Grange. Please let me know if you are interested.

Birchyville Earn you Eggs!

PT & Tri-Area Food Banks

Consider volunteering at one of the food banks a couple days this month. They are in need of extra hands and you can see the full-circle of how the veggies we grow get put into the community's hands.

Volunteer Now

Tomato Soup With That Grilled Cheese, Please!

With the farmers market back up and running, it feels good to get a small taste of what's to come. I was excited to get my hands on some White Lotus sourdough bread, Chimacum Valley Cheese, Midori Savory Kraut, and a mix of veggies from my favorite farmers! If you hear those first three together and think grilled cheese like I did, then you'll need some tomato soup, too!

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 large onion, cut into large wedges
1 (28-ounce) can tomatoes
1 ½ cups water or stock
Salt to taste
A few cloves of garlic, crushed

1.Melt butter over medium heat in a soup pot
2. Add onion wedges, water, can of tomatoes with their juices, and salt. Bring to a simmer. Cook, uncovered, for about 40 minutes. Stir occasionally and add additional salt as needed.
3. Blend the soup, and then season to taste. The soup doesn’t need to be ultra-smooth, some texture is a nice touch.

Serve with that kraut-filled grilled cheese and a side of your favorite veggies!

Tips for April Gardening

Seeing everyone's bulbs pop-up is such a solace in spring... but now is a good time to sow hardy annuals to cover up the bare spots once the colorful bulbs die back.
Add compost and other soil amendments to get ready for the growing season ahead.
Cool weather plants and starts can go in the ground over the next few weeks.
Get a jump on the slugs! They are out and about... consider an eggshell barrier, night time missions or copper tape.
Now is a great time to clean up the garden - pruning and deadheading. As the temperature warms, bees and other insects do not necessarily need your dead plants as homes any longer.

Runner Ducks at Birchyville

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Fri, 01 Apr 2022 19:26:32 GMT

Birchyville's Runner Ducks & Chicken Eggs

Birchyville runner ducks commune with chickens to eat bugs and produce the most beautiful eggs -- the blue/green eggs are from the ducks and the brown eggs are from the chickens.

The gifts from our birdy buddies are gratefully received each week to the Port Townsend Food Bank -- dozens and DOZENS of them.

Blessings Garden is a GO

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Fri, 01 Apr 2022 19:03:52 GMT

Let the planting begin.

Blessings Garden had three new beds built by volunteers Mark Paxton, JJ Johnson & Herb Tracy on a drizzly March day. Blessings Garden, one of the newest Food Bank gardens, is a beautiful established garden on Umatilla Street. The FBG have use of five of the eight beds, and a small hoop house to even further augment the ability to grow produce for the Food Bank.

How to Enjoy Mustard Greens

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Fri, 01 Apr 2022 18:56:02 GMT

Food Bank Receives 8 pounds of Greens

Eight pounds of mustard greens made their way to the Food Bank the last week March, along with a printout of ten ways to use them in recipes. Mustard is fairly hardy and can grow throughout the winter months with a bit of protection. They are a nice addition to our tables while other greens are just starting to grow.

According to healthline.com, Mustard greens are packed with energy-boosting, heart-healthy, disease-fighting nutrients. These greens are a delicious source of calcium, magnesium, folic acid and vitamin K, important for bone health. Raw mustard greens have a tasty, peppery bite, but you can mellow it by cooking.

If you happen to have an instant pot handy, pressure cook the leaves for 1 minute and release the pressure. They will be perfectly cooked, done, but not overdone. You can do the same for Kale and Chard.

April Plant Sale Results!

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Fri, 01 Apr 2022 17:21:41 GMT

Wonderful turnout for 2nd Annual Plant Sale!

The Food Bank Growers' 2nd Annual Plant Sale is over for now, but the spirit of giving continues. Donations are still coming in, and a rash of new volunteers signed up for a variety of garden and office-oriented tasks. Our biggest seller this year was the two-hour weeding extravaganza with Kathy and Barbara.

The Walk-In Sale was just as popular. Au Contraire provided toe-tapping tunes, many more plants were sold, and nearly $1000 of plants went to other Food Bank and Community Gardens. Herb's Worm Bin demonstration was fascinating, he still may have one available if you missed out.

Pam B won the Garden Bear drawing. The Bear has her own chair by the fireplace and is now a 'member of the family'.

As for the Seeds For Ukraine seed sales, we are pleased to be sending nearly $100 to World Center Kitchen (wck.org) from all of us.

No resting on our laurels here - we're already preparing for our Fall Plant Sale - focused on providing vigorous starts for winter gardening. Perhaps we could all 'grow a row' for our Food Banks this year!

A big THANK YOU to Plant Sale co-managers Barbara Tusting and Mark Paxton . This sale took months of effort from when Kim Danner first planted the seeds at the Quimper Grange greenhouse, to potting out of seedlings, to making sure they went to right people. The online website worked perfectly and is now dialed in for any future events and we have our publicity planned. The day went smoothly because of all the work that came before.

Why Create a New Website?

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Wed, 30 Mar 2022 23:10:48 GMT

Hold more. Reach more. Teach more.

We Grow. We Gather. We Give. That's our simplified mission. Underneath those words are hundreds of volunteer hours and multiple garden s operating with a common goal -- to provide a safety net of fresh local food to our area food banks.

We Grow

From an idea and two gardens in 2012, to 12 gardens in 2022 with more on the way, we are growing as a group as fast as we are growing food. This website provides a foundational structure in which we can expand and still remain easy to use and searchable. At launch time we had 25 articles; in another year we may have 250 articles. This new structure gives that content a place to live without becoming overwhelming.

We Gather

Yes, we gather food, but first we gather together as workers and friends to create a place that nourishes our souls as well as the soil. With so many volunteers, we want to get to know one another better, to learn from each other's experiences, and to become more efficient at producing fresh food. This "living website" captures those moments and links them to partners and friends who also want to strengthen our food system. Besides gathering in the gardens, the website provides an additional hub for activities.

We Give

Giving back is the #1 reason volunteers come and work at a garden. After two years of COVID, we've become more virtual in our communications. Many volunteers are also cultural creatives -- this website will collect their recipes, "how to" tips, and events that keep giving long after we've gone home.

Grow where you're planted

The new site is simple in structure, to that end we went with a shorter name to fit that direction -- FoodBankGrowers.org. Don't worry, PT Farm and Gardens of Jefferson County , is still the legal name, "doing business as" Food Bank Growers will be our public persona. It's far easier to remember.

The site also features a Green Map of all Food Bank gardens along with primary information on each. Explore gardens near you and consider volunteering a couple hours a week. The Green map system includes icons for what is available on the site and are searchable across the platform -- click on the greenhouse icon and all gardens with greenhouses pop up.

To keep the content useful for all Growers/Gleaners we'll cover topics such as Garden Tips, Construction, Gleaning, Seeds, Recipes, Learning... and of course an occasional wild card. If you have an idea, toss it our way. Generally anything that is less work, more productive, and of course fun is encouraged. Send your blog ideas to our new Volunteer coordinator Sophie DeGroot.

Nettles: Good for You and Your Plants

admin@totera.com (Frank DePalma) — Fri, 25 Mar 2022 16:14:47 GMT

Kevin Gale's set up for juicing nettles

Upon being stung by a nettle plant, who was the first person who said, "I bet this would be good to eat"!

Seriously.

These plants are bad news in the spring to unsuspecting gardeners. Their tiny spines release an acid that burns when it comes in contact with your skin. That said, fresh nettle tops are also very nutritious to both you and your plants.

Juicing nettles crushes the spines or dipping them in hot water immediately deactivates them. Stir frying or steaming does the trick, too. You can eat them like cooked spinach. Or make tea out of them like you would with mint leaves. There are tons of recipes online.

Create nutrients for your garden -- soak nettles in a bucket for days and throw that "tea" on your plants while watering. Learn how to do that, here .

Yesterday after setting up pole bean fences at Red Hen Garden, Kevin walked away with a bucket of young nettle tops from the edge of the woods. He juices them using an Omega juicer, dilutes the mixture with celery juice and then drinks it in shot glass sized allotments.

Why? Seems like a lot of trouble except when you know that a

cup of fresh Nettle tops provides four times your Vitamin K needs, 70% of Vitamin A and 50% of your calcium. It also kicks up your iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, and trace amounts of much more. That's just one cup of fresh leaves.

Give it a shot.

Yearly Harvest

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Wed, 23 Mar 2022 19:26:11 GMT

From the Growers and the Gleaners

In 2021 the Food Bank Growers and the Quimper Community Harvest Gleaners delivered a record high of over 36,000 pounds of local fruits and vegetables to the Food Banks and others in need. It's amazing what we can grow, one plot, one tree at a time.

Each week, the Growers weigh and record their harvest by the type of veggie or fruit. The stats are sent to the FBG Stat person who adds them to a cumulative data base on Google Sheets.

The Gleaners also weigh and record their picks from backyard orchards. This year's haul took in over 13,000 pounds of fruit and 1000 ears of corn.

If you have questions regarding the numbers, please contact us.

Newsletter March 2022

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Fri, 18 Mar 2022 21:08:45 GMT

Greetings volunteers and community members

As Spring begins to peak through the folds of the seasons, we are already donning our work gloves and really getting to work! Though this last week was a good reminder that we are still in winter and must protect our precious starts. With the growing season fast approaching, our volunteer opportunities begin to pick up and we hope you'll join us!

But first, a few important upcoming events:

There will be a Pop-Up Plant Sale at Birchyville Food Bank Garden will be Saturday March 12, 10-2 -- 100% of the proceeds benefit all eleven Food Bank Gardens, growing, gathering and giving fresh produce to our community's food banks. Please see below for more details, but know there are raspberry plants galore!

The following are some items available for sale:

Bare root TulaMagic raspberries, 5 for $25. Berries are long season, very large and sweet. They're budding out and need to be planted!
1 gallon potted Tulameen raspberries $3 each. June bearing provides sweetness for several months.
1 gallon orange crocosmia. Just about to peek out to greet the spring. Great for filling in spaces, deer resistant. $3 each.
Seasoned Bamboo stakes! 4' to 10' bundles to choose from. Perfect for building your bean trellis, augmenting your deer fence, and staking up plants.
Potted bamboo, several species, and more!

Please park at 206 Hancock Street and walk through Birchyville Food Bank Garden to find the plants of your dreams!

Growing Groceries starts on March 16th and runs until April 20th, meeting every Wednesday. This class is hosted by the WSU Extension and is a great opportunity for everyone, no matter how much or how little experience they have. It will cover topics such as planting calendars, seeding starting and transplanting, crop rotation, as well as beneficial insects and pollinators.

Goosefoot Farm is looking for propane tanks for their flame weeder. If you have any that you do not have a current use for and would like to pass on, please let us know!

Our Annual Fundraiser and plant sale will be April 30. While we are still preparing, keep it mind as a great place to buy starts for your garden! We will have fruit and veggies starts, as well as herbs and flowers to Greetings volunteers and community members!

March Volunteer Opportunities

Birchyville - Earn Your Eggs!

Spring Fundraiser

We will be hosting our plant sale again in April and will need volunteers in the weeks leading up to help us pot starts for the sale. If you are interested in helping out, please let me know so we can contact you directly as the dates approach!

Volunteer Now!

What to do with all those wintered leeks?

Press Coverage

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Wed, 16 Mar 2022 15:41:17 GMT

Thank You!

September 22, 2025, The Beacon: How Our Most Vulnerable Are Being Pushed to the Brink - and Finding Nourishment and Connection

November 25, 2024, Food Co-op News: 37,000 Pounds of Purpose - November/December Beans For Bags Spotlight: Food Bank Growers

February 2024 The Beacon: Food Bank Growers Cultivate Hope and Community Resilience Through Sustainable Gardening Initiatives

January 2023 Co-op Newsletter: Food Bank Growers Feature Article

August 2022 PDN: Grow a Row for Winter Harvest

June 30, 2020 PDN: Jefferson County Anti-Racist fund seeking equity / Goosefoot donates

July 24, 2020: High Country News - Food Insecurities Exposed

April 29, 2020: PT Leader - Fresh from the Garden to the Food Bank

April 15, 2020: Edible Landscape Feeds Community

April 19, 2016: PT Leader - Growing Food Security

Sophie DeGroot, Garden Coordinator

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 00:59:08 GMT

From cross-country to being planted...

Meet Sophie DeGroot, our first ever Garden Coordinator. Hailing from across the pond in Seattle, she has a deep love and appreciation for gardening in the PNW. Working with her dad's landscaping business and gleaning fruit trees for food pantries as a kid, she is excited to finally be putting her green thumb and passion for feeding people to work in her community.

While the PNW has always been home, it took Sophie some time to realize it was where she really wanted to be. Moving to the east coast to go to school, she got her first pea patch in The Victory Gardens in Boston's Fenway neighborhood. Gardening in such a meaningful spot made her feel connected to the history and people that had fostered the soil before her, a feeling she will never forget.

After graduation, she focused on her love for movement and motion - travelling by bike to over 35 countries. From day trips in the mountains of Alaska to 120-day tours across Africa and Asia, as well as solo trips in Australia and Mexico.

While on a bike tour in Mexico, it quickly became obvious that the pandemic was serious and she needed a place to call home.

The PNW was the obvious choice. The past two years have been difficult in many ways, but the Port Townsend Food Bank and The Food Bank Farm and Gardens were vital in feeling connected to the community and the place she is proud to call home.

Sophie has been the Volunteer Coordinator for a little more than a year and is excited to dive in even deeper. As Garden Coordinator, she will be working with Garden Managers and Volunteers to foster an efficient, fun, and safe environment for growing food for the food banks. When she's not in the gardens and working with garden managers, you can find her developing her small piece of land or riding (even sometimes racing!) her bike around the West Coast.

If you want to get in touch, you can reach her at foodbankgrowers@gmail.com

Growing a Garden from Scratch

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Mon, 14 Mar 2022 23:13:36 GMT

Setting roots is easier than it looks

Each spring the Grange Garden takes up the challenge of growing seedlings and transplants for the Grange, other gardens, and the spring FBG Fundraising sale. No small task.

This year is in the good hands of Kim Danner who has acres of experience which includes starting plants for farmlands of produce. Here she is holding baby kale which she tenderly lifts apart from the soil and replants in their own individual pot. Look at those roots -- six inches long on a 1 inch plant!

Kim mass seeds a flat of soil, puts it on a heating mat and under grow lights and then keeps an eye on them lightly watering until they germinate.

Bottom line, if you s ow enough seed something will grow. Once sprouted and potted the percentage of having a successful crop goes up dramatically.

If you can't beat it - EAT IT!

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Sun, 13 Mar 2022 17:32:04 GMT

Spring weeds are delicious. Have them for lunch.

Turn those spring garden clean up tasks into grocery shopping... technically Mother Nature did the "growing" in these recipes, but gardeners do the gathering, so it counts.

Featured left is chickweed, which aggressively comes up in our spring gardens. Usually we rip it out and toss it in the compost bin, but maybe it deserves a second life in a dish? Chickweed contains vitamins A, D, B complex, C, rutin (a bioflavinoid), calcium, potassium, phosphorus, zinc, manganese, sodium, copper, iron and silica. Try this forged Chickweed pesto from Colleen Codekas. She specializes in forged and fermented food.

Above is Miner's lettuce. Ashley Adamant is responsible for the circular salad . How fun is that? It's little round slices of love in a bowl. Miner's Lettuce (the size of a decent salad) contains a third of your daily requirement of Vitamin C,

22 percent of the Vitamin A, and 10 percent of the iron.

Since they both pop up at the same time we often transpose one name for the other -- seeing them side-by-side is a nice botanical lesson and now, a lunch option. Happily both are FREE for the picking and eating.

March Pop-Up Sale - BIG Success

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Sun, 13 Mar 2022 16:30:35 GMT

Who knew that bamboo was such a draw?

March 12th was cold, but the people of PT were ready to pounce on a FBG plant sale and give their own gardens a fast start. The 10am-2pm pop-up sale netted $900 that will be plowed back into the soil, fences, water... whatever is needed to keep the Food Bank Gardens generating their safety net of food in 2022.

What sold? BAMBOO plus lots of raspberries, perennials, herbs, rhizomes, and bulbs saw their way into trunks and strapped to the top of cars.

Congratulations to organizers, Barbara, Birch, Mark, Mary, and Sophie for a very lucrative event.

Easiest Recipe EVER

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Sat, 12 Mar 2022 22:23:16 GMT

How to cook a squash perfectly

It's March which means it is time to cook up the rest of last season's squash harvest before it goes bad or starts growing it's seeds INSIDE the squash. The hardest part of cooking a squash is cutting it open with a huge cleaver or a cleaned up ax. So don't do it. Just roast the whole thing with the seeds still inside until a knife can easily push into the meat. Usually an hour at 350 degrees is enough - more if a 10 pound squash and less if it's a 1 pounder.

Once done slice off the top and scrape out the seeds before serving as sliced wedges of squash or scoop out the creamy flesh to put into soup or the freezer.

Or... when a personal sized squash is half baked, take off its cap, scrape out the seeds and replace with a pilaf or rice stuffing. Put the cap back on and cook a bit more. That's it! Serve it to anyone you want to impress.

The down side of this this whole squash method is that it means those seeds can't be planted - they are literally cooked.

18 pounds of Sunchokes

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Fri, 11 Mar 2022 21:24:04 GMT

Wild Rovers make weeding fun and earn Sunchokes for Food Bank

All those friends you make volunteering in the Foodbank garden? Sometimes they may rove over to give you a hand mulching and weeding at your place. You’ll get your workout—no charge—and share laughter, stories, recipes , and maybe coffee and some homemade frittatas (which leads to more stories and recipes.) And you’ll go home with memories of new friends and 18# of beautiful sunchokes for the Saturday Foodbank.

What’s not to like??? Did you know that Sunchokes are easy to grow and with the right cooking treatment , delicious?

And now -- you’re motivated to tackle that planter of sunchokes in another garden, because, well, because it’s time. And spring is just around the corner. And you know what to do with them.

Photos and story contributed by Kathy Ryan.

Annual Reports

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Wed, 09 Mar 2022 23:43:02 GMT

Click on the year

PDF 2024 FBG Annual Report

PDF 2023 FBG Annual Report

2022 FBG Annual Report

PDF of 2021 FBG Annual Report

PDF of 2020 FBG Annual Report

PDF of 2019 FBG Annual Report

From Harvest to Food Bank Volunteer

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Wed, 09 Mar 2022 20:01:15 GMT

Marilyn Berry now at Tri-Area Food Bank

In 2021, Marilyn Berry was always the first person to show up at the Red Hen Garden harvest days. She had the system down of what to cut, pull, trim, wash, package, weigh... new volunteers could slide in and be effective workers within minutes under her leadership.

This year Marilyn is switching tasks from Grower to Giver of food at the Tri-Area Food Bank.

Thanks for your time at Red Hen, Marilyn, we're happy that Tri-Area is getting such a well versed and excellent worker. Hearts and hands are needed everywhere.

Easy Seed Storage

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 21:01:08 GMT

Save seeds in a dark, dry, cool, rodent proof, and organized box.

Seed storage is a lot like our sock drawers, we start off with good intentions and within a few months we can't find anything.

Most of us just jam packets in a bag and maybe tuck them in a cool closet in winter. At best they'll be cool and dry, but still a mess to find anything come next spring. Seeds are expensive unless you're getting them from the FBG Seed Library or the WSU library. Even if they are free, however, they quickly end up in a big pile that requires endless hours sifting them all for that one pack of beans that you KNOW you have...

Enter the Photo storage box, turned seed vault. The box (on Amazon) can store up to 1800 photos (100 per box) and comes in clear plastic as well, but you want the dark one if possible. The 16 boxes inside can be broken into family plant groups. The best part, when the packages pop open (and they always do) the seeds end up inside the box and not stuck in your carpet.

Seeds will be viable for 4 years or more if you're careful with the storage and keep them from becoming munchables for mice.

FBG Seed Library keeps "late" hours

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 14:34:29 GMT

Delivered directly to greenhouse...

Turns out that the postal system has some serious competition for delivering during the cold and dark of night. Our entire seed library showed up during the first 2022 FBG outdoor garden manager meeting in the Grange garden greenhouse.

It became dark faster than we anticipated, but luckily we all have phones with flashlights to light up the selection process. Can you ever have enough seeds? How can you not feel the promise and hope of a new season after reading a packet description like this?

Sweet Meat / hubbard type squash

115 days. A Northwestern heirloom still virtually unknown in the rest of the U.S. Round, 10-15 pound slate gray squash has superb keeping quality and a rich, sweet flavor. Vigorous vines grow to 10 feet.

Doubling Garden Space

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Mon, 07 Mar 2022 19:37:12 GMT

2021 - Red Hen Expands

Red Hen garden has made massive improvements since it was first brought into the fold in 2019. The first year was about getting cedar roots out of the beds and upgrading the irrigation. In 2022, Red Hen doubled it's size with six raised beds nicely sided with rough sawn wood by Kevin Gale, and four long rows of free form gardens seen here with Amy Does spreading the soil around. Behind her you can see the new compost bins which were also built by Kevin.

If you're thinking about expanding, talk to the Red Hen volunteers first -- they'll tell you what to do and what to NEVER do again... learning curves are in gardens, too.

During this time, the garden also went through a name change to make it clearer as to what was a Food Bank Garden and what was a RainCoast Farms garden. (Red Hen is located on RainCoast land.)

FBG Seed Bank

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Fri, 04 Mar 2022 17:51:58 GMT

Seedy Idea is Now Two Libraries

The FBG Seed Bank first started at the Quimper Grange Food Bank Garden where Growers collected and dry stored seed from their most productive plants. These seeds are meant for growing or pollinating edible foods. Other seeds have been donated from WSU Seed Library, Shooting Star Farm, Saltwater Seeds, and PT Garden Center.

The FBG Seed Bank collection is available to FBG gardens, and any community gardens or individuals who donate products grown from the seeds to our local Food Banks. Saving healthy seed from your garden to return to the Seed Bank is highly encouraged! For more information, contact foodbankfarmandgardensjc@gmail.com.

A second source of seeds is the WSU Seed Library, which is open to the public. This library is housed at the WSU Extension office.

About the WSU Seed Library

Growers can learn the technique of saving seeds while working in the gardens. They can then save enough to use the following year in the sponsoring garden, start their own home library, or take extra seed to the WSU library. "Each spring, the [WSU] library will feature locally developed varieties that you can “borrow“. We’ll provided you with enough seed so that you can grow plants to eat and for seed saving." (Adapted from WSU JCMG website) - Karen Seabrook, WSU Seed Library Coordinator

https://extension.wsu.edu/jefferson/master-gardener-seed-library

Kick-started in 2019 with funding from (previously) Food Bank Farm & Gardens of Jefferson County, the Seed Library was adopted by Washington State University Master Gardener Program where it is now housed.

Saving locally grown seeds helps to preserve genetic diversity and helps promote strains that are adapted to local conditions.

For more information for the WSU Seed Library, email Karen at seedlibrarywsu@gmail.com .

Food Bank Growers is proud to have given a leg up to become a local provider of high quality, locally grown, and FREE seeds for the community!

Flower FULL Spring Rolls

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Fri, 04 Mar 2022 17:11:58 GMT

Wrapping Up Family Fun

Don't just look at the flowers in your garden, some are wonderful to eat with your eyes first and then...

Some common local flowers include: lilac, peony, pansy, violets, elderflower, tulip, nasturtium and many more.

Pictured are spring rolls assembled by Grower Mary Hunt. She says, "Make sure you put the flowers down first and then layer the rest of the ingredients before rolling to have them seen through the rice paper skin. Shown: blue borage and super thin cut (and bendable) radish."

Click here for a printable HOW-TO-MAKE page, hosted on L2020.org.

Gleaning Apples and More

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Fri, 04 Mar 2022 16:46:08 GMT

Gleaning by the Truckload

When the apples start coming, bring your truck to the tree. We are fortunate to have many backyard orchards to pick from when fall arrives. Plums, pears, Asian pears, apples, figs... would all rot on the ground or feed the deer if the Gleaners didn't snatch them at their prime and take them to schools.

The "gleaners" are part of the Food Bank Growers network, while they may not grow the food, they provide thousands of pounds of local fruit each year to the Food Banks, schools, churches, and senior centers.

Started by Seth Rolland in 2012 and officially dubbed the Quimper Community Harvest, the group is an efficiently run operation that kicks off in July when cherries ripen and ends in November (yes, even that late) with the very last apples.

Typically they pick on Tuesdays from 3-5 and Saturday's from 10-12. Volunteers are allowed to take fresh picks home following established guidelines making the effort not only fun, but pantry-filling.

Let us know if you would like to be on call list to pick. It's completely your choice of how many times you're able to help - one week or the full season. Ladders, picking bags, boxes, and instructions are given out prior to heading for the trees.

Planting Pot Repurposing

admin@totera.com (Frank DePalma) — Thu, 03 Mar 2022 18:42:08 GMT

Growers Use Hundreds of Pots

The First Annual Fundraiser for FBFG in 2021 taught us many lessons. One of those was to start collecting pots early in the season, and getting them washed and sanitized before the next fundraiser was launched. A number of event customers asked if they could bring their used pots back to us for use in the future years. A wholehearted 'yes!' was our reply.

Since then, pots of every size and shape have been showing up outside the Quimper Grange Food Bank Garden gate. Our goal is to acquire enough pots to supply our annual fundraisers, with extra left over for the other food bank gardens to use during the growing seasons. Especially needed are 4- and 6-pack pony packs.

Each year we sanitize, by hand, the pots into which we plant our precious seedlings. Soil needs to be scrubbed out, then they get a bath in bleach water to sanitize and prevent viruses from being spread from garden to garden. Our stalwart crew is happy to do the cleaning and sanitizing. All we ask of the donors is to deliver no broken pots, and to remove the soil before delivery. We will gladly do the rest.

To make a donation to the pot recycling project, please email Barbara at barbaratusting97@gmail.com . She will let you know if we still have storage space. Thank you for thinking of us!

Red Hen has a new "Coop"

MaryClareHunt@olympus.net (Mary Hunt) — Wed, 23 Feb 2022 19:37:49 GMT

A Tool Shed for All Seasons

Thanks to Lys Burden, Amy Does, and Char & Jim Quandt the Red Hen Garden has a new shed to store their supplies. At the end of 2021, the three ladies held a two weekend screw-driver-a-thon and assembled the 4x8 foot metal shed.

This spring Char and her husband Jim put the shed on a sand and paver platform to keep it squarely on the ground blocking out pests and ensuring that the door will open and lock easily.

Amy later donated a heavy-duty shelving unit to handle harvesting supplies, nets, and fleece.

Thank you all for providing the Red Hen garden a dry and easy access to a year's worth of equipment.

Community Freeze Dryers

admin@totera.com (Frank DePalma) — Sat, 12 Feb 2022 17:47:17 GMT

The brainchild of Sue Cross

Born out of a need to improve food security for East Jefferson County, a two-year pilot project was developed by Sue Cross. Start-up funds were contributed by Jefferson County Food Bank Association, Port Townsend Food Co-Op, an anonymous donor thru the Schwab Charitable Foundation, Jefferson Community Foundation, and Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation. Other community donations came pouring in and FBFG purchased the first two residential-sized freeze dryers and supplies. The Old Alcohol Plant graciously offered to house the units and freeze dry the produce.

For a more detailed overview, click here.

Surplus produce that is locally grown or donated to the food banks by grocery stores or other suppliers is freeze dried and stored for emergency food supplies. There are currently over 200 packages, or eighty pounds of freeze dried food housed at the Tri-Area Food Bank. The packets contain a great variety of fruit and vegetables, good for up to twenty-five years!

This pilot project has resulted in:

Waste Reduction – Hundreds of pounds of fresh produce and fruit come into food banks during the three months of peak harvest and not all can be given away before it spoils.
Creation of Food Reserve – The project allows us to create a supply of food for winter months, when very little fresh produce comes in. If fresh produce or canned produce (which has a shorter shelf life than freeze dried) is not available, the freeze dried produce can be distributed.
A Supply of High Nutritional Value Food – Freeze drying preserves 96% of the original food value of the fresh food, a higher percentage than canning or dehydrating. Freeze drying can also produce a reconstituted product that is more attractive and closer to fresh than canning or
dehydrating, or even frozen. Additionally, freeze dried food does not require special storage units or electricity.

The FBG continues to gather data during the 2-year pilot project for use in planning and implementation of Phase 2, which includes further development of freeze drying locally. One goal of Phase 2 is to hire a part-time assistant for the increased workload at the Old Alcohol Plant kitchen, giving the project a much-needed hand, and offering training in food handling. Another is to establish and foster a small business based on freeze drying. A future plan is to acquire a mobile facility that would provide small batch processing capability (canning, dehydrating, and freeze drying) to small farmers, allowing them to create a value-added marketable product. The mobile facility would also serve as an educational platform for local schools and agricultural extension, demonstrating and teaching food preservation on location.

The cost of the pilot project will be approximately $20,000. The final cost of phase 2 is yet to be determined, but will be in the neighborhood of $75,000 or higher. Any donation earmarked for “Community Freeze Dryers” will be 100% dedicated to this specific project.

_____________________

UPDATE: 1-19-23 One of the two freeze driers now resides at the Salish Elementary School and the other at the Recovery Cafe. We will add more information as it comes in.

The final data collected on the Freeze Dryer project from the Old Alcohol plant is here.